G2 Esports Unlikely to Secure Partnership with Riot Games for Valorant’s Franchised League

G2 Esports found itself in the middle of a controversy after its founder and CEO Carlos "ocelote" Rodríguez Santiago posted a video of himself at a party of Andrew Tate. After being called out for associating himself with Tate, Carlos said that others will never be able to police his friendships which led to pushback from several members of the esports community. And it looks like Carlos’ actions have led to unforeseen consequences as Riot Games is allegedly looking to reject G2’s application to join the upcoming Valorant franchised league.

G2 to not be accepted into the EMEA or Americas Valorant Leagues

According to Dot Esports’ George Geddes and Sports Business Journal’s Kevin Hitt, G2 was accepted into the Americas league but Riot Games made a last-minute decision to remove the team from the league. Leviatan is expected to replace G2. Riot Games is expected to announce the list of teams participating in the international leagues later this week and we should have more information soon. 

Carlos Rodriguez apologized to fans due to the recent controversy. He said on Twitter, “It has always been my consistent target to stand for absolute equality of opportunity regardless of who you are or where you come from, which is what gaming is all about.”

The CEO is taking unpaid leave for eight weeks. G2 Esports released a statement  and apologized for the situation as well. It said, “After internal discussion, Carlos and our Supervisory Board have mutually agreed that he will take eight weeks of leave as CEO and suspend his earnings during that time.”

G2 Esports is also part of the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) and it remains to be seen if the actions of its CEO will have consequences in the Valorant esports scene only or if it will extend to other games.

Some fans on social media platforms talked about how unfortunate it is that players and other members of G2 had to suffer the consequences for something they did not do, while others are supportive of Riot Games’ decision as the actions of G2’s CEO reflects upon the company.