It's been a rollercoaster of emotions for fans and staff of The Guard, the popular LA-based esports organization. Back in July, the popular Tier 2 org won the VALORANT Challengers Ascension tournament, meaning that they would earn a franchise slot for 2024 and 2025 for the Tier 1 VCT Americas competition. However, earlier this week, Riot Games announced that The Guard had forfeited their spot after failing to submit the correct paperwork.
This left fans, players, and coaches justifiably upset that the team's hard work had gone to waste thanks to administrative incompetence. As a result, many people began imploring another organization to step in and pick up the roster. However, the team's coach, JoshRT, went straight to the top. The well-respected community took to Twitter to pitch the team to Elon Musk and Ben Affleck. Musk and Affleck recently revealed themselves to be major VALORANT fans, attending the season-ending VALORANT Champions tournament in Los Angeles earlier this month.
Read More: Elon Musk attempts to remove the block feature from X
JoshRT Pitches The Idea Of X Gaming
"Hey @elonmusk or @BenAffleck, I heard you like VALORANT? X GAMING 2024: @valynfps @trentFPS @neT_valorant @JonahP_ @texerino Head Coach: @JoshRTz," JoshRT tweeted on August 29. In a second tweet, JoshRT also added YouTuber MrBeast as a third option. The tweet received overwhelming support from the VALORANT community and beyond. However, many others did not like the idea of having to cheer for Elon Musk. At the time of writing, none of the famous faces tagged in the tweets have publicly responded.
However, all of this might be in vain. The idea that the roster could be signed by another org and still compete has been seemingly shot down by Riot themselves. "Allowing an acquisition by a different organization now opens the door for slots in the VCT to be sold, which we do not allow," VALORANT Global Head of Esports Leo Faria said as part of a lengthy statement on the issue. For the time being, it appears that the only way that The Guard's roster will appear in VCT International League is if a franchised team chooses to acquire them as free agents.
Read More: Guild Esports announces Street Fighter 6 tournament in a literal sauna
[via]
