Valorant

The Guard Coach Asks Ben Affleck And Elon Musk For Help After VCT Americas Partnership Falls Through

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It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions for fans and staff of The Guard, the popular LA-based esports organization. Back in July, the popular Tier 2 org won the VALORANT Challengers Ascension tournament, meaning that they would earn a franchise slot for 2024 and 2025 for the Tier 1 VCT Americas competition. However, earlier this week, Riot Games announced that The Guard had forfeited their spot after failing to submit the correct paperwork.

This left fans, players, and coaches justifiably upset that the team’s hard work had gone to waste thanks to administrative incompetence. As a result, many people began imploring another organization to step in and pick up the roster. However, the team’s coach, JoshRT, went straight to the top. The well-respected community took to Twitter to pitch the team to Elon Musk and Ben Affleck. Musk and Affleck recently revealed themselves to be major VALORANT fans, attending the season-ending VALORANT Champions tournament in Los Angeles earlier this month.

Read More: Elon Musk attempts to remove the block feature from X

JoshRT Pitches The Idea Of X Gaming

“Hey @elonmusk or @BenAffleck, I heard you like VALORANT? X GAMING 2024: @valynfps @trentFPS @neT_valorant @JonahP_ @texerino Head Coach: @JoshRTz,” JoshRT tweeted on August 29. In a second tweet, JoshRT also added YouTuber MrBeast as a third option. The tweet received overwhelming support from the VALORANT community and beyond. However, many others did not like the idea of having to cheer for Elon Musk. At the time of writing, none of the famous faces tagged in the tweets have publicly responded.

However, all of this might be in vain. The idea that the roster could be signed by another org and still compete has been seemingly shot down by Riot themselves. “Allowing an acquisition by a different organization now opens the door for slots in the VCT to be sold, which we do not allow,” VALORANT Global Head of Esports Leo Faria said as part of a lengthy statement on the issue. For the time being, it appears that the only way that The Guard’s roster will appear in VCT International League is if a franchised team chooses to acquire them as free agents.

Read More: Guild Esports announces Street Fighter 6 tournament in a literal sauna

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VALORANT Player “Twisten” Dies At 19

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The esports world is mourning the loss of Karel “Twisten” Asenbrener, who passed away at the age of 19. Originally from Czechia, Twisten began his VALORANT career in 2020. Before 2020, Twisten briefly spent time in the pro scene of Rainbow Six Siege. After playing in the VALORANT Academy, he joined Kings of Sosnovka. Over the course of late 2020 and early 2021, Twisten spent time with Czech giants eSuba and Entropiq. Then, in September 2021, Twisten made the move to the German organization BIG.

With BIG, Twisten began to find mainstream success. The team won four editions of the Kingdom Calling tournament. Furthermore, they appeared in two stages of the VCT EMEA Challengers in 2022. As Riot Games moved VALORANT to a franchise model, Twisten caught the eye of French giants, and VCT EMEA franchise, Team Vitality. Joining the team, Twisten opened his career with top-four finishes at the G-Loot VALORANT clash and a Red Bull Home Ground event. However, the biggest stages were yet to come. The team finished 14th at the VCT Lock-In event in Sao Paolo before notching a 5th-place finish in VCT EMEA League play. Twisten’s last match was a 2-1 loss to FUT Esports on May 25.

Twisten Confirmed Dead After “Good Night” Tweet

Twisten has always been open about his struggles with mental health. Following Team Vitality’s loss in the Lock-In tournament, Twisten posted a length Twitlonger. In it, he talked candidly about his battle with depression. On June 6, Twisten posted a tweet that simply read “Good night”. While seemingly innocuous, “good night” is also a common esports term that players post after killing an enemy.

Furthermore, on June 7, Team Vitality confirmed the worst – that Twisten had passed away. “We are deeply heartbroken to share with you that our VALORANT player Karel “Twisten” Asenbrener passed away last night. We are deeply saddened by this devastating loss, and our first thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends in this difficult time. The whole Team Vitality Organization is devastated by this news, and we will be stopping all communications for the rest of the day. Rest in peace Karel.” In response to his death, a challenge drive was implemented at the upcoming VCT Master Tokyo. Every “shorty” elimination would add to fund that would raise money for a mental health charity.

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