The revelation comes a month after the organization was passed over for a partnership in Riot Games’ Americas league.
Earlier as reported by TalkEsport, G2 Esports Valorant were denied a spot at the VCT: Americas League after CEO Carlos Rodrguez tweeted a video of himself at a party with Andrew Tate. It was confirmed in a stream with 100 Thieves’ Spencer ‘Hiko’ Martin and esports consultant Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau that Cloud9 was the team who made the cut to the Americas League replacing G2 on the Manifest.
It was believed that G2 was already trying to recruit players and employees from Valorant in North America in preparation for earning the place from Riot. Multiple G2 players and staff members wrote online that the organization was letting them examine other offers for 2023 while still under contract.
This comes a month after the now-infamous video showed G2 founder and then-owner Carlos Rodriguez partying with misogynist Andrew Tate. Carlos’ appearance with Tate and his confrontational response to backlash sparked ire from the esports community, resulting in his leaving the firm he helped build.
Following the backlash, G2 and the Supervisory Board came to the conclusion that ocelote would be suspended for a period of eight weeks and that compensation would be withheld during that time. Ocelote later stepped down as the CEO of G2 Esports.
More than only the leadership of G2 was impacted by the event. G2 was being considered for a VALORANT collaboration in the Americas League and was in talks to pick up the complete XSET lineup and staff. However, according to reports, Riot leaders got together in Istanbul at Champions and decided to backtrack on their plans to include G2 in the partnership.
Oscar “mixwell” Caellas, Aaro “hoody” Peltokangas, Johan “Meddo” Renbjörk, Žygimantas “nukkye” Chmieliauskas, and Auni “AvovA” Chahade are now unrestricted free agents along with head coach Daniil “pipsoN” Meshcheryakov.
The future of G2’s participation in VALORANT is also currently uncertain because the organization has not yet made a decision regarding whether or not it will compete in the EMEA Challengers league.
