Why European organizations are not investing in VALORANT?

Every region and organization is handling the rapidly evolving VALORANT competitive scene differently. We have seen organizations like T1 recruiting players like Braxton "Brax" Pierce and Keven "AZK" Larivière as early as the first day of VALORANT’s closed beta. While on the other hand, we have Team Vitality’s CEO, Nicolas Maurer, cautiously monitoring the European VALORANT scene before diving into it.

So far, the North American VALORANT competitions have managed to produce a caliber of teams that can prove to be an international threat. However, this all comes back to organizations not shying away from investing early and putting in the money needed to further develop and nurture these talents. On the other hand, the European VALORANT scene only has a handful of recognizable organizations, with the rest being squads formed to compete in tournaments to eventually get picked up and signed as a group.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case as we already had two instances of a similar manner, namely Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks leaving Team Liquid to join G2 Esports later on and recently, the disbanding of PartyParrots. They are not even the only ones, as SKADE announced their players are going their separate ways and the final official match under the FABRIKEN name will be played on July 31st, 2020. However, Oliwer "LATEKS" Fahlander showed his commitment to rebuilding FABRIKEN again at some point.

Both of these squads are being heavily overlooked by CIS and European organizations, with their impressive list of achievements. FABRIKEN managed to win the Rise of Titans, and finish second in the Wave Esports Invitational Cup - S1. While on the other hand, Party Parrots won both the Epulze Valorant Prodigies and the Wave Esports Invitational Cup - S1, beating the aforementioned team which just shows how competitive it has been amongst European VALORANT squads.

What happens is outstanding performers are approached individually, causing the teams to dismantle and break the bond holding them together. For now, it is hard to judge whether this is more beneficial or harmful to the European VALORANT esports scene in the long run, but it is safe to assume that sometimes taking out one cog from a working machine to slot it into another doesn’t necessarily mean it will work.

Tyler Erzberger, also known as The Esports Writer, attributed the delay in European VALORANT esports organization forming their rosters to their attempt at least finding one marketable and well-known player to build around as per his sources. Some might argue that this defeats the purpose of assembling a competitive powerhouse, as not every top VALORANT professional has the charisma and attraction to grab the audience as a personality.

Another reason might be the one mentioned by Team Vitality’s CEO, Nicolas Maurer, in his interview with The Loadout as his preference leans towards a more established competitive environment for VALORANT, similar to the franchising model present for Riot Games’ League of Legends in Europe, North America, and other regions. This allows organizations to ensure a safe investment into VALORANT, guaranteeing the studio’s involvement in the scene long term and a better competitive environment for the players to know when they are playing exactly.

We have seen Team Liquid tease their roster announcement after all of the rumors surrounding the organization and its potentian lineup, but we will have to wait and see what the future holds for the European VALORANT esports scene. What do you think is the reason behind European organizations holding back? Is building around marketable personalities more important than forming winning rosters? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!