The unexpected news that Acend is leaving Valorant spread across the internet yesterday, and we also reported on it in our article. Today, we'll delve into the details of this story and the reason why the European organization is departing from Riot's shooter competitive scene.
Official Reasons
As team members announced their departure on social media, an official statement appeared on Acend's account. In it, the club's management recalls their history, the birth of the Valorant competitive scene, and their battles against world-renowned organizations.
Time flies fast now, doesn't it? It's hard to remember those days of LAN tournaments without spectators. Players isolated in small dark rooms. It was under such conditions that the world of Valorant existed when we (formerly Raise Your Edge Gaming) qualified for the first Masters tournament in the newly established VCT by defeating OG 2-0. Subsequently, we lost our first best-of-three match as Acend Esports Club to Ninjas in Pyjamas. We took revenge a week later by eliminating NiP from Group A and securing a meeting with FunPlus Phoenix. In the finals, we faced Team Heretics and their formidable roster. In a tense best-of-five series, we defeated Heretics 3-2, claiming the first European Masters trophy. We ended the year by fixing the bugs in the code to become the first-ever Valorant world champions.
Beyond reminiscing, Acend representatives also explained why they are leaving Valorant, and the main reason lies in the Tier-2 Challengers league. The organization's management states that the conditions in Challengers are simply terrible. Tournament organizers did not pay out prize money, and maintaining a team is very difficult overall because the prize money isn't sufficient to pay players' salaries.
However, the second tier of the ecosystem showed alarming signs of decline this year, with tournament organizers going out of business, not paying prize money, and canceling tournaments. It is becoming increasingly difficult to justify fielding a team with a long off-season, small prize pools, and the pressure of VCT-level salary expectations. With a heavy heart, we are forced to announce today that Acend Club will not participate in Valorant esports in 2025. The increasingly hostile ecosystem has simply made responsible team management impossible.
READ MORE: Apeks Joins the VCT Franchise for 2025
Acend is not the first organization to complain about the poor conditions in the Tier-2 league. Professional players, analysts, and commentators have also voiced their concerns. However, so far, Riot Games has not made significant changes or improved conditions for Challengers teams.
SOURCE: X
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