by Riot Games has announced that teams who scale through the screening exercise to become a part of the company’s Valorant program would be given a yearly pay of $1.5 million. The interview phase of the partnership program is wrapping up, and the organizations involved are being given new bits of information.
The most recent information concerning the partnership is the amount of money the new partners would be given after being accepted into the program. While impressive, the stated amount is relative to the organization being paid.
Factors like the region the team is located in, as well as its performance all year round and the revenue sources of the league, will all play a part in the remuneration. At the moment, the lowest amount Riot Games will distribute to teams is $600,000. $1.5 million is the highest pay if the parties involved can deliver appealing results.
Compared to American and EMEA teams, Asian organizations will receive a slightly lower amount from Riot Games. This is reportedly because the region operates at a lower cost than its counterparts.
News of the Valorant partnership program with Riot Games was first released in late April. The partnership will commence at the beginning of 2023 and take the place of the open circuit that the game has had since it was first released.
The new system is glaringly different from the conventional way of establishing a franchise. Organizations like the Call of Duty League, Overwatch League, or even LCS and LEC owned by Riot Games, all practice systems where interested organizations are mandated to produce a flat buy-in fee to be included.
In contrast, the Valorant partnership program would award international leagues who scaled through the screening program a certain amount yearly to ease the organization’s operational costs.
Due to how rigorous the screening process is, a number of esports organizations, including New York Fury, Complexity, and Luminosity, have all been turned down by the game developer. As a result, the teams have either exited the scene or removed themselves from Valorant esports as a whole.
The Asian, American, and European teams are still undergoing the program’s interview process. Riot Games announced that North American teams like TSM, Cloud9, The Guard, Version 1, and NRG were shortlisted and would proceed to the next screening phase.
This round included personal meetings with the teams to compile their financial information. DRX Vision Strikers, a Korean group, will likely move on to the next round.
The fact that the mentioned teams were selected to move to the next round does not guarantee they will make it to the actual partnership. Riot Games will reportedly reveal the esports organizations that will be a part of the 2023 circuit before the Valorant Champions 2022 event, which is scheduled to take place at the end of the year.
The highly anticipated event will be held between September 2 to September 18 in Istanbul, Turkey, and boasts a prize pool of over $1 million. The date is much earlier than the Valorant Champions 2021 held last year and will give room for the changes to the franchising format in 2023.
