Many teams applied to become part of Riot Games’ upcoming franchised VALORANT circuit in EMEA. With some being on a waiting list, teams have advanced to the next stage of the partnership process.
On July 15th, Riot Games communicated to teams their situation regarding the possibility of entering one of the VALORANT franchises. The vast majority of candidates were eliminated, leaving a total of around 20 teams.
Some of the teams in the waiting list, with a large fan base, were left in limbo between advancing to the next phase and being disqualified. Finally, their futures were decided and some of them managed to advance to an interview phase.
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What is this last phase of the selection process all about?
The teams that were selected for this stage on July 15th were given an appointment in the same acceptance email to interview with Riot Games and present their long-term team project. This interview is mainly done in person at the Berlin office (although there is also the option to do it online) and the teams started to present their projects at the beginning of this week.
The teams will finish presenting their projects in mid-August, so we’ll know who the selected teams are around the end of August and beginning of September.
How will Riot choose its 10 selected teams?
According to sources close to the situation, BLIX.GG has learnt that the EMEA spots will be distributed as follows:
– One spot for each organization representing a large community (Spain, France, Turkey, etc.).
– Among the remaining teams, all of them will compete against each other, so there is a very real possibility that there may be multiple teams representing the same community if it aligns with Riot’s vision and ambitions.
What are the applications and team interviews like and what do you present in them?
The applications range in size from fifty to hundreds of pages. Both should contain the history of the organization, future plans for the team, ambitions and salary data.
According to our sources, some of them offer future plans as big as the creation of a city focused on esports, although in the end both the ambitions and the feasibility of these plans are valued.
A great example of this is the application that Team Liquid made for the LoL franchises, which they later published a portion of. It is a great way to see what an application to Riot’s franchised leagues looks like.
Where will this league be hosted?
Although the interviews are being held in Berlin, the venue is still undecided. Everything points to the fact that Barcelona and Berlin are the main candidates. Riot Games was already looking at options regarding where to locate the headquarters in Barcelona, sources close to BLIX.GG commented, although at the moment we cannot confirm that the Spanish city will be the chosen one.
Before starting with the 20 selected teams (+1 on the waiting list), it should be noted that some teams have applied in more than one region. For example, G2 Esports and Misfits both also applied in NA, but we can’t currently guarantee what region they may or may not be accepted it. BLIX.GG will work over the next few weeks to get the full list of the American league.
The full team list selected for the next stage of the partnership process in EMEA is as follows:
- Natus Vincere
- Team Heretics
- Giants Gaming
- Team Vitality
- Excel Esports
- BIG
- Rogue
- BBL Esports
- Ä°stanbul Wildcats
- FUT Esports
- Fire Flux Esports
- Guild Esports
- KOI
- Karmine Corp
- Heroic
- Fnatic
- G2 Esports
- Team Liquid
- FunPlus Phoenix
- OG
- Unidentified traditional football club
