According to a new post, The Guard, a fan favourite organization, failed to meet the deadline to agree to the league’s team participation agreement “after several months and rounds of communication.”

An update regarding the teams participating in VCT Americas 2024. pic.twitter.com/YCYoZSPpcL

— VALORANT Esports NA (@valesports_na) August 29, 2023

As a result, they will no longer be participating in the 2024 VCT Americas League, much to the surprise of fans and players alike.

Additionally, no other teams from the Challengers scene—including M80, the runner ups from the Challenger Ascension tournament — will be promoted to the main league.

Instead, Riot has decided to run the following season with the same 10 teams as before, causing an uproar within the VALORANT community.

For The Guard’s roster, it seems that today’s news came as a complete surprise, with multiple players and their coach indicating that none of them knew of the decision beforehand.

Michael “neT” Bernet displayed his displeasure with how things were handled and the betray he feels towards his organisation for taking away this opportunity.

Meanwhile, the coach of The Guard, Josh “JoshRT” Lee, joined neT in displaying his displeasure with the decision and even said that he will be looking to move on from the VALORANT organisation when he becomes a free agent.

I am devastated. All the hard work and sacrifices we have went through as a team just to have it stripped away from us through Twitter… At the end of the day some things in life are truly out of your control and it is unfair but to be punished for putting my heart and soul into…

— GUARD neT (@neT_valorant) August 29, 2023

A lot to process right now…

So much work was put into our Ascension winning run & we built a program that would've been very competitive next year. Now I have no idea where my team's future lies.

Open to talking any potential orgs right now, I'll be a free agent. https://t.co/UXGHwJqPIN

— GUARD JoshRT (@JoshRTz) August 29, 2023

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The move marks Sentinels’ return to Apex Legends after dropping their roster due to a poor showing at the ALGS Split 1. Although there is yet to be an official announcement from Sentinels, the new lineup from The Guard consists of Beau “RamBeau” Sheidy, Keon “Keon” Berghout, and Cole “Rkn” Prommel, all of whom make up one of the most attractive lineups in Apex Legends. The team notably recorded an impressive performance in the recently concluded Split 1 Pro League.

Sentinel’s returning lineup for Split 2 was initially meant to be SpaceStation Gaming’s players, including Angello “Xenial” Cadenas, Joseph “Frexs” Sanchez, and Mark “Dropped” Thees.

Despite already being listed as participating in official tournament documentation, the deal fell through at the last minute after the team played in the ALGS Split 1 Final as SpaceStation. The lineup then decided to split up entirely, with Xenial signing with Oxygen Esports just days after the event concluded.

In February, the Guard laid off most of their staff to ease off their financial burden. However, all the organization’s competitive gaming divisions were kept back in a move most suspect was made to secure buyouts from other teams.

When the layoffs were made public, RamBeau shed light on the team’s situation and informed interested organizations to reach out to the players.

The Guard placed third in their regular season performance and, as a result, qualified for the ALGS Split 1 Playoffs. They ended their tournament run in 17th place.

Apex Legend’s season 16 update may cause some issues within Sentinels’ new lineup, mostly due to the new class system. Several of the team’s micro strategies were based on Crypto, and while they will continue to use the legend, the squad will have to come up with a different role for him other than remotely scanning the next zone.

The Battlefy registration has announced a number of other roster changes in the North American ALGS. Mark “Dropped” Thees is officially signed to OpTic Gaming while his two teammates, Xenial and Joseph “Frexs” Sanchez, went to separate teams. Frexs signed with FaZe Clan earlier this year.

Jaeden “Caprah” Valle, who left the Apex competitive scene in January following some online controversy, is back and signed to SZN.

Besides an unusual amount of roster shuffles, several esports organizations have left Apex while others have joined. Some of these teams include G2, Team Liquid, and SpaceStation Gaming, all of whom left Apex because the esport was not financially lucrative enough. Some others that left are yet to be replaced; instead, their slots are being filled by free-agent rosters.

Several updated rosters will debut on March 11, when the North American ALGS commences.

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The North American esports team announced the signing of NRG Esports duo, Ian “tex” Botsch and Josh “JoshRT” Lee, who will be joining its young breakout roster core from the previous year.

Tex will join the main roster as a duelist, while coach JoshRT will serve as the outfit’s head coach.

The move comes after both player and coach became free agents following changes to the NRG Esports roster in the off-season that led to the franchise recruiting OpTic core consisting of in-game leader Pujan “FNS” Mehta, Austin “crashies” Roberts, Victor “Victor” Wong and coach Chet “Chet” Singh.

The Guard missed out on securing a partnership spot in the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Americas league but received a direct invite from Knights Arena to compete in the 2023 North America Valorant Challengers League.

Over the course of two splits, a mid-season invitational, and playoffs, The Guard will seek to reach the VCT Americas through the Challengers League.

The Guard’s core roster consists of Trent “trent” Cairns, in-game leader Jacob “valyn” Batio, Jonah “JonahP” Pulice and Michael “neT” Bernet, who impressed in the first stage of the Valorant Challengers (VCT) North America last year by going from open qualifiers to a first-place finish and a spot at Masters Reykjavik.

Despite narrowly missing out on reaching the Valorant Champions 2022 after a loss to 100T in the grand finals of the North America Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ), The Guard made all of its players restricted free agents and stated that it still wanted to compete in Valorant.

The Guard will be joined in the 2023 North America Valorant Challengers League by TSM, G2 Esports, M80, Shopify Rebellion and FaZe Clan. The league offers a chance for teams to qualify for the VCT Americas through a structured competition, rather than the more unpredictable open qualifiers.

Tex and JoshRT will replace former duelist Ha “Sayaplayer” Jung-woo and head coach Matthew “mCe” Elmore on The Guard’s roster. Sayaplayer had a breakout year in 2021 and subsequently joined T1 to play alongside other former Overwatch League greats like Munchkin and Carpe. Meanwhile, mCe left The Guard to join Cloud9 and reunite with some former colleagues.

They will be tasked with helping The Guard reach the VCT Americas and make a strong showing in the competition. Botsch is known for his strong duelist play, while Lee brings a wealth of coaching experience to the table. Both player and coach will be looking to make an impact with their new team and help guide them to success in the 2023 North America Valorant Challengers League.

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According to reports, some North American teams have made it to the next round. In the next phase, they will share their financial information with which Riot will make a final decision. Some of the teams who made the cut are Cloud9, TSM, The Guard, NRG, and Version1.

C9 was one of the first teams to enter the Valorant scene after its official release in June. Unfortunately, they have not had much success in the esports title.

Although they made it to the 2021 Valorant Champions after winning the NA Last Chance Qualifier, they were swept by Team Liquid in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. With their fifth-place ranking (70 points) in the NA standings, they will be looking to seal their 2022 Champions berth through the NA LCQ which starts on August 7.

TSM is another team that was there from the start of VCT but has failed to make any real impact. They finished the NA Stage 2 Challengers second-to-last and have no hope of featuring in the 2022 Champions through the Last Chance Qualifier.

Although most of the teams in the NA region joined Valorant in 2020, The Guard and Version1 did not make their entry into the league until 2021. The Guard have shown they can compete in NA, finishing the 2022 NA Stage 1 Challengers as the No. 1 team.

With that impressive regional run, they sealed their spot in the Reykjavik Masters. Unfortunately, they had an entirely different run in Stage 2, finishing ninth with only one victory in five outings.

V1 is currently participating in Season 3 Stage 2 of the MEL Valorant Premiership. Regardless of the outcome, they have already booked their spot in the Season 3 playoffs.

NRG have also had a poor run since joining Valorant in October 2020. They have failed to feature in any of the top-tier events.

In the just-concluded NA STage 2 Challengers, they finished fourth. A top-two finish would have guaranteed them a spot in the Copenhagen Masters but they lost to FaZe Clan in the lower bracket semifinals.

Although these are popular organizations in NA, they have not dominated the scene. Nonetheless, there is a chance some of them will attain partnership status ahead of next season.

So far, only one team has made their rejection public. Shopify Rebellion, who were looking to make their entry into the men’s Valorant, were one of the unlucky bunch.

Rebellion submitted their bid to Riot even before even acquiring a roster. Even as their bid for next season was rejected, the former Luminosity Gaming roster will participate in the NA LCQ with the hope of reaching the 2022 Valorant Champions.

The new format will pair North American teams with Latin America and Brazil. The Americas will have about eight to ten partner teams. There have been reports that the number of teams could go up to 12, which is solely at the discretion of Riot.

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?Coach Mathew “mCe” Elmore has ruled the loss as a result of the inability of the team’s rising star, Trent “trent” Cairns, to listen to music during the competition. While he has always been listening to music during his games prior to this time, he was prevented from doing so at the VCT Masters Reykjavík in Iceland. ??His go-to method of reducing edginess and retaining focus was apparently not allowed on LAN.

With his ability to listen to music hampered, the 17-year old couldn’t perform at his best, thereby losing the game.??

His coach – a.k.a. ‘the Guard-father’ – disclosed in an interview the difficulties the team have had to face adapting to LAN in Reykjavik, as compared to their boot camp in Texas. These differences he suggested would be addressed if the players learn to adapt to the “standard setups”.

??“The guys have got to get used to more standard setups,” mCe suggested.

“Trent listens to music while he plays, and [he wasn’t] allowed to listen to music here. It could be a nerves thing that helps him calm down, and these are things that we learned that were too late to try and switch.”

??When trent found out he was not allowed to listen to music, he was shocked. So was mCe when he found out that his player had been beating the best of NA VALORANT with music blasting as his focus tool. The player’s talent was witnessed during the NA Challengers group stage and playoffs as he solidified himself as a rising star. ??

“I found out when we got here he was listening to music,” mCe said.

“Today mid-match he opened Spotify and realized that he was actually super nervous and uncomfortable. He asked the admin if he could play music, [but] the admin said ‘no’.”??

The coach admitted that all his players, including Michael “neT” Bernet, Jacob “valyn” Batio, Jonah “JonahP” Pulice, and Ha “Sayaplayer” Jung-woo, were nervous, but trent had it worse with Masters Reykjavik being his first event on the big stage.??

“I don’t think [trent’s level of play] was as bad as trent thought,” mCe said.

“I think he didn’t play up to his level and I think he got in his head because of it. Comments online are pretty brutal anytime you lose anything like this and I think it definitely got to the guys a little bit.”??

It was deduced that the young player’s playlist will likely include songs from Kanye West and Juice WRLD, but more especially those from Lil Uzi Vert.

The Guard-father has resorted to having the players take a well-deserved break as they have been very active since January 7.

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The Guard and Optic Gaming are the two teams that went ahead to represent North America in the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) 2022: Stage 1 Masters – Reykjavík.

But with The Guard out of the competition, their head coach Matthew Elmore has called on fans to support the remaining North America (NA) Valorant team in the competition.

Via his Twitter page, Elmore showed his support for his North American counterparts, suggesting a win for Optic Gaming is a win for NA.

“To all our fans as well please rally behind the @OpTic guys now. We’ve still got a team in the tournament and a damn good one at that. Bring it home for NA”

To all our fans as well please rally behind the @OpTic guys now. We've still got a team in the tournament and a damn good one at that. Bring it home for NA pic.twitter.com/1nTPjV76Fw

— Matthew Elmore (@MatthewCElmore) April 16, 2022

The battle between The Guard and OpTic Gaming has been immense in the past month.

In the Upper Bracket Final of the North America Stage 1 Challengers, OpTic swept The Guard in Split and Bind to secure a spot in the Grand Final. After a 3-0 series win against Cloud9 in the Lower Bracket Final, TG was ready to exact revenge against OpTic.

On this occasion, it was a closely-contested affair, as they played all five maps before a winner emerged. The Guard eventually won the series on Haven, winning $50,000 from the $200,000 prize pool and getting seeded to the Masters. OpTic, who finished second, also clinched a spot in the Masters and went home with $32,000.

Although The Guard was one of the teams that did not have to play in the Masters Group Stage, the extra rest did not do them any good as they squared off against Optic in the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals. In the Best of 3 game, the Los Angeles-based team lost to OpTic, who would go on to play DRX from Korea in the Upper Bracket Semifinals.

The Guard had the opportunity to stay in the tournament but lost their Lower Bracket Round 1 game against the Asia-Pacific Paper Rex.

The Guard, via their official Twitter page, following the loss announced that preparations have already started for Stage 2.

“Our young team has learned a lot from our first international LAN tournament. The #VCT journey is not over – today simply marks the start of our preparation for Stage 2. We’ll see you all there! #StandGuard”

Our young team has learned a lot from our first international LAN tournament.

The #VCT journey is not over – today simply marks the start of our preparation for Stage 2. We'll see you all there!#StandGuard pic.twitter.com/WXPxoirrHD

— The Guard (@TheGuard) April 16, 2022

Now, with OpTic playing later tonight, Elmore is rallying support for the NA team. It will be an uphill task upsetting DRX, who are the favorites to win on several esports betting platforms with a moneyline odd of -175.44 .

DRX has won eight consecutive games, and has a win rate of 92% in their last 30 matches, compared to OpTic’s 69%. The teams have never met before in a competitive setting, but DRX is undoubtedly in better form.

A loss will not be the end of the road for OpTic, but they will have to play a lot more games to reach the Grand Final. If they fail to advance to the Upper Bracket Final, they will play Paper Rex or ZETA DIVISION in the Lower Bracket Round 2.

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