Ludwig slams Valorant for targeting Challengers teams with performance penalties

Popular streamer and part owner of Most X Shopify, Ludwig clapped back at Riot Games for their changes to the Valorant Challengers system.

Valorant revealed its upcoming changes to the Valorant Champions Tour Challengers route on June 21. The changes outlined that there would no longer be an auto-relegation process, instead replacing it with a performance-based system.

This change only affects teams that have entered the VCT through Ascension and does not involve organizations that were selected to be part of franchising. However, this change sparked Moist x Shopify owner Ludwig to address the situation.

Ludwig’s got a team of his own, Moist X Shopify, competing in Challengers with the hopes of ascending. He was very vocal about his gripes with the new ruleset and how they favor franchise teams over the org he’s a part of.

“So it went from 2 years to 1 year of promotion for ascension teams and you added performance based relegation but ONLY for ascension teams. So randomly selected VCT teams could never win a series or even a map and have no risk of relegation,” said Ludwig on X in response to the news.

Some commenters agreed with Ludwig, while others pointed out that the teams accepted into franchising get paid money to be there. But that didn’t stop Ludwig from clapping back over the decision.

“They get a stipend to help pay for facilities and player contracts + payouts from exclusive skins. I also think it is normal to incur risk in esports,” said Ludwig in reply to another X user.

What Ludwig is referring to for teams that were brought into franchising but are not punished based on performances are teams such as FURIA or MIBR, who both went winless during the first stage of VCT Americas.

Despite their poor VCT showing, neither organization will face relegation because they were brought into franchising at the start of 2023.