- This was just speculation at first but was confirmed yesterday
- G2 has been recently rocked by a couple of scandals involving misogyny
- Riot will announce the official list of partners next week
G2 Esports’ string of recent controversies has cost them their partnership slot for next year’s VALORANT Champions Tour
Riot Denied Partnering with G2
Every year, Riot Games chooses a few dozen esports organizations to partner with for the VALORANT Champions Tour. These teams will participate in the league throughout the season and this is why the company often shows the most popular teams, in order to generate hype for the competition. In fact, Riot will soon reveal the partnered teams for VCT 2023.
However, according to recent developments, one of the biggest VALORANT organizations, G2 Esports, will not make Riot’s partnership selection. This information was first brought forward as just rumors by several of 1PV, Dot Esports, and Sports Business Journal’s sources, but was confirmed to be the case yesterday.
The decision to not include G2 in the list of thirty teams Riot partners with for the VCT is certainly stunning. G2 already has a massive global reach owing to its long history with professional League and its track record of successful esports divisions. The team has been a constant contender in EMEA and international play over the past two years and it finished top six at both Masters Berlin 2021 and Masters Reykjavík 2022.
Why Riot Did Not Include G2 in Its Partners List?
When trying to figure out why Riot decided to not work with a giant organization such as G2, one must look at G2’s recent string of scandals. Firstly, the organization’s CEO Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez was suspended for 8 weeks as a disciplinary punishment. He had to take this unpaid leave because of some of his recent actions, in particular a controversial video he posted.
A few days ago, Rodriguez posted on social media a video of himself partying with controversial internet celebrity Andrew Tate. The latter has been, on multiple occasions, accused of heavy misogynistic behavior and statements. G2’s board of supervisors regarded Rodriguez partying with Tate as a bad image for the organization, so the CEO and the board came to a mutual agreement that the latter will take eight weeks of unpaid leave as punishment.
But accusations towards G2 members, regarding misogynistic behavior, don’t stop there. Recently, a popular female streamer accused G2’s Tyler “Dezignful” Gardner of participating in a misogynist chant at ALGS. Although this case is harder to prove, as not much evidence of the alleged act has yet surfaced, it still casts G2 in a negative light.
Now that G2 will not be a VCT 2023 partner, Riot might lose some viewership. However, if Riot had stayed partners with G2, there might have been an outcry because of G2’s recent string of controversies. Eventually, the company decided to play it safe.
Some rumors say that Riot is going to give G2’s partnership slot to Leviatán, but this will be confirmed next week.
