M80’s VALORANT roster implodes as reality of another failed Ascension run sinks in

Two failures were one too many apparently, with four out of five players today departing M80’s VALORANT roster to enter unrestricted free agency. The only remaining member is Zander, but it’s likely only a matter of time until the 22-year-old follows suit too.

Just last weekend, M80, the heavy favorite to break through Champions Tour Americas and make it to Riot Games’ franchising league, instead ran straight into a misstep at the final hurdle. After missing out on the VCT Americas League for the second time in a row, the end of the second division North American VALORANT roster now seems imminent.

Four out of five VALORANT players have already confirmed their departure from M80. The former players include NiSMO (flex), koalanoob (duelist), BcJ (recon), and neT (sentinel/lurker). NiSMO and koalanoob were original members of the M80 squad that faltered in Ascension 2023, while BcJ and neT were new to join the ride in 2024.

It’s no surprise they’re leaving; failing to make it to franchising would mean they had to sit tight for another year awaiting the next Ascension tournament, which they’d already spent 2023 and 2024 doing.

All the players from the M80 squad can still find a way into the VCT Americas League in 2025, but only if franchised teams acquire them. We recently learned numerous players in the league, including TenZ and Saadhak, would either be retiring or jumping ship to other competitive regions—potentially opening up slots for the ex-M80 players to join the franchise competition.

The free agents have something to look forward to, but the same can’t be said for M80, which suffered a massive financial blow after this second Ascension failure. The NA org spent two years sustaining its Challenger-tier VALORANT squad only to miss out on the main league twice.

Running a VCT team, even if it’s only a Challenger-level squad, can be very costly. In 2023, DisguisedToast revealed he spent $500,000 a year running his VALORANT team Disguised. We’d speculate M80 spent even more every year since its team runs at a larger scale, with additional support staff also included.

The end goal for such orgs with a Challenger roster is to make it into the VCT Americas League, where every partnered team can create additional revenue streams through team bundles, prize money from VCT tournaments, and, most importantly, exposure.