Ok so currently there 2 ascensions team in the Tier 1 circuit: ascension teams can only retain their spots if they make champs, Top 4 in their region, and if teams finish top 8 they can defend their spot in ascension.
I think the changes riot have made has improved Ascension but I feel like ascension teams should earn the right to defend their spots in VCT regardless of placement since with the current system it's very possible a team worse than the previous ascended teams enter the Tier 1 circuit instead. This is bad for a few reasons:
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Viewer Engagement: If team quality goes down we'll get more sceanarios like 2G vs Furia where the match quality is so poor nobody wants to actively watch the game and worse teams would directly lead to more sweeps and one-sided maps.
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Stability: The current system doesn't incentivise Ascension orgs to invest heavily into getting better teams since if they fail to get top 8 then they can't even defend their spots and are just instantly relegated to Tier 2, if teams at least got the chance to defend themselves no matter what, then ascension orgs could at least rely on being the "best of the worst". With the current format, the challenge of even getting top 8 is too difficult, especially in harder regions, considering the only reward is an invite to ascension which should already be a given.
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Unfairness: Right now the VCT formats favours franchised teams to an absurd level as even if a franchised team does poorly there is 0 risk of relegation so they will always be more attractive to players than ascension teams, where players can't guarantee a slot for next year. This creates more situtations where in the event of a team ascending stand-out to even medicore players will get taken from ascension teams - players should almost always choose to join a franchised team due to increased stability. Whilst the stability of franchised teams is an intended feature of partnership, Riot could at least mitigate the risk to ascension orgs by ensuring they can at least defend their slots.
Whilst there are some expections like G2 and XLG which have found some success, despite being ascension orgs, its very likely a side-effect of the early franchising era and as talent pools get consolidated amongst franchised teams its going to be more and more unlikely for a core from T2 managing to even reach top 8 let alone qualify for champs thus retaining their spots. Hopefully, Riot chooses to address in the future.
TLDR: Gentles Mates should be invited to ascension 2025
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