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According to sources online, two promising Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) contenders, Global Esports from India and Bleed eSports from Singapore, were supposed to merge together for franchising for the Valorant partnership program.
The merger was meant to go through for a fee that was rumored to be around $6 million. However, the VCT rulebook had restrictions set in place for strategic partnerships such as this deal.
The franchising program is going to be the main focus of VCT ecosystem for the next five years and there are multiple teams that have been selected from many regions for the official partnership.
The deal on strategic plans for Global Esports and Bleed for the VCT 2023 has ended
Riot Games already shares a history with OpTic Gaming's previous efforts in franchising for the League of Legends Champions Series (LCS) slot.
The organization was initially rewarded with a franchising slot in the 2018 LCS season. However, they had to relinquish their ownership of the roster to Immortals in 2020.
Similar issues could affect the partnership program and hurt its chances with viewership in the long run. Talks regarding the merger of Bleed eSports and Global Esports for VCT 2023 came to an end after Riot Games brought forth restrictions in the league.
Riot Games have reported that they are looking to avoid conflicts such as the previously mentioned League of Legends roster problem and have to plan a lot before permitting such a deal.
The developer has already blacklisted G2 Esports from the partnership program due to the controversial event that took place with Andrew Tate and Carlos, the co-founder of G2 Esports.
A similar merger took place between LDN UTD and OG Esports back in May 2022 where both organizations combined to power a single Valorant roster for the VCT EMEA Stage 2 Challengers.
Global Esports is the sole representative of the South Asian region of the Valorant Pacific League. They are one of the biggest esports organization in India and were selected among a few compelling candidates for the franchise slot. Even without a merger with Bleed eSports they can still compete on the big stage against the top teams.
Bleed eSports will have to go through the Challenger Leagues with no spot in the franchising, which will make their competition fairly difficult and uncertain.
The Singaporean organization could look for better players to hire in order to achieve success in the Malaysia & Singapore Challenger League splits and Ascension tournament.
