According to a Sheep Esports report, Riot Games is planning to cut part of its incentive program for VCT international league teams for content creation and instead focus on in-game cosmetic sales.
VCT teams have multiple revenue streams from Riot Games as the developer’s chosen representatives across its four international leagues.
Esports organizations receive funds througha fixed stipend, an incentive structure, and a share of profits from in-game sales of theirteam-specific cosmetic bundlesand theValorant Champions bundle.
One part of the incentive structure was linked to the team’s viewershipof their VCT content and co-streams. This led to teamssigning content creators to co-streamtheir games andhiring editors and designers to work on videos and social media verticals.
“Since those are performing incredibly well thanks to the generosity of our fans. All in all, we expect significant growth in the total amount of money paid to teams by Riot, continuing the growth trajectory from the past three years,” a Riot spokesperson told the publication.
Some VCT teams are reportedly unhappy with the short notice ahead of the change and promise from Riot that things will shake out evenly next year even without the $400,000 in content incentives.
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Riot Games has not given out sale numbers for the VCT cosmetic bundles globally or per team. However, the developerhas posted the top-selling VCT team bundlesover the season. Sentinels, Paper Rex, Fnatic, and EDward Gaming top the list across the four regions.
How this will impact the co-streamers and behind-the-scenes content workers for these organizations remains to be seen. Esports organizations are just coming out ofa layoff periodthat sawdozens of workerslose their jobs as outside investment slowed, andprofits remain elusive.
Declan McLaughlin was a Gaming & Esports Writer on Dexerto’s US team, specializing in Valorant and League of Legends. He has bylines at Upcomer and Inven Global.
