With only one two-year promotion spot in the VCT Americas league up for grabs, the NA VALORANT Challengers League promises to be an exciting one stacked with top teams.
Only five NA organizations acquired partnerships to be in the VCT Americas league, and all the roster moves left a sizable pool of NA talent for potential Challengers teams to pick from. This massive pool of talent has formed some impressive-looking squads and attracted both big-name organizations and massive streamers to pick up teams.
Related: VCT Americas 2023: VALORANT scores, schedule, format, and standings
Fans of NA won’t have to worry about choosing between watching NA Challengers and VCT Americas action either because the leagues will have separate broadcast windows that shouldn’t overlap.
Need a refresher? Here’s a look at the teams that compete in NA VALORANT Challengers League, either as direct invites or as qualifier teams.
G2 Esports
- Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan
- Michael “dapr” Gulino
- Maxim “wippie” Shepelev
- Erik “penny” Penny
- Francis “OXY” Hoang
- Ian “Immi” Harding (coach)
G2 may have missed out on NA partnership in controversial fashion, but the organization is committed to competing in NA VALORANT and showed its commitment with a dynamite roster. The former Sentinels duo in ShahZaM and dapr highlight the group. They’re flanked by the underrated but reliable former Version1 duo in wippie and penny, brought in by former coach Immi. The fifth in OXY has already surpassed expectations.
TSM
- Johann “seven” Hernandez
- Corey Nigra
- Anthony “gMd” Guimond
- Nicholas “NaturE” Garrison
- Eric “Kanpeki” Xu
Despite missing out on partnership, TSM was the first of the major NA orgs to come out publicly and say that it wasn’t leaving VALORANT anytime soon. The team brought back a familiar face in the veteran hazed, while also bringing on former Immortals/Gen.G player NaturE. During the first split, Hazed stepped down from the roster, to make room for former Sentinels player Kanpeki.
M80 Esports
- Mohamed “johnqt” Amine Ouarid
- Gianfranco “koalanoob” Potestio
- Marc-Andre “NiSMO” Tayar
- Daniel “eeiu” Vucenovic
- Alexander “Zander” Dituri
- Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer (coach)
A new challenger emerges to take over the NA Challengers League. XSET co-founder Marco Mereu has launched a new organization in M80 and is looking to explode into the NA VALORANT scene with the former Ghost core of NiSMO, koalanoob, and johnqt. Flanking the former Ghosts are former NRG member eeiu and former Version1 in-game leader Zander. The team is coached by a legend of French Counter-Strike in Happy.
The Guard
- Trent Cairns
- Jonah “JonahP” Pulice
- Michael “neT” Bernet
- Jacob “valyn” Batio
- Ian “tex” Botsch
The Guard is running it back with the majority of the roster that exploded onto the NA VALORANT scene early in 2022. In NA VCT Stage One of this past year, the relatively unproven group ended up winning the entire stage with victories over Sentinels, Cloud9, and OpTic during the playoffs, eventually reaching Masters Reykjavík. The Guard missed out on partnership and lost both duelist main Sayaplayer and coach mCe over the offseason but picked up tex round out the group.
Shopify Rebellion
- Adam “mada” Pampuch
- Brandon Michael “bdog” Sanders
- Kaleb “moose” Jayne
- Victor “v1c” Truong
- Anthony “vanity” Malaspina
Shopify Rebellion is back in action for 2023 after joining the growing NA VALORANT scene in the summer of 2022 when it made a huge pickup of the former Luminosity roster. The org made a move to grab a young upcomer in v1c before competing in offseason events, and the young flex/controller player has looked excellent in their first two events, which both turned into first-place finishes. After the first split, Shopify scored with the pickup of in-game leader vanity after he departed Cloud9.
FaZe Clan
- Andrej “babybay” Francisty
- Kevin “poised” Ngo
- Phat “supamen” Le
- Anthony “mummAy” DiPaolo
- Tanner “TiGG” Spanu
FaZe is for sure running it back in 2023, but the state of its starting roster remains a mystery. The group from last year was a serious threat in NA VCT, coming close to reaching the international stage on two separate occasions, if not due to a disruptive power outage.
After split one, FaZe added mummAy and Tigg, both formerly of Turtle Troop.
Moist Moguls (Moist Esports)
- Brady “thief” Dever
- Alex “aproto” Protopapas
- Brock “brawk” Somerhalder
- Xavier “flyuh” Carlson
- Tyler “sym” Porter
- Tanishq “Tanizhq” Sabharwal (coach)
The first of the open qualifier teams to officially reach the NA VALORANT Challengers League is BreakThru. This team is stacked with talent experienced in VCT play, with its players having spent lengthy spells with the likes of FaZe, Ghost, Luminosity, and TSM Academy. Coached by the former head coach for both Heretics and Vitality, the team didn’t drop a series during the open qualifier, capping off their run with a comeback win over The Nation in a series where they lost the first map 13-1.
Between weeks two and three of split one, the BreakThru roster was picked up by Moist Esports and rebranded to Moist Moguls
Disguised (Disguised Toast)
- Joshua “steel” Nissan
- Joseph “clear” Allen
- Amgalan “Genghsta” Nemekhbayar
- Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker
- Michael “nerve” Yerrow
- Kyle “OCEAN” O’Brien (coach)
After weeks of anticipation, streaming star Disguised Toast signed his own VALORANT team under the Disguised banner just a day before the open qualifiers for NA Challengers began. Led by veteran and former T1 in-game leader steel, the group of mostly former Knights players qualified for the NA VALORANT Challengers League in the first open qualifier, without dropping a single series through the upper bracket.
Between the first and second splits, the Disguised roster made a superstar acquisition by picking up former Cloud9 player yay, while also adding nerve.
Oxygen Esports
- Mitch Semago
- Josh “pwny” VanGorder
- Devon “randyySavage” Bréard
- Andrew “Verno” Maust
- Logan “skuba” Jenkins
- Yassin “Reduxx” Aboulalazm (sub)
- Preston “Juv3nile” Dornon (coach)
After playing with an “Academy” roster for most of 2022, Oxygen is going all in for 2023, with an impressive roster of talent from teams like Cloud9, T1, Renegades, and Knights. The biggest name on this roster is former C9 foundational piece Mitch, who brings a wealth of regional and international VCT experience to this team.
MAD Lions
- Justin “Trick” Sears
- Adam “Ange” Milian
- Marshall “N4RRATE” Massey
- Joseph “Bjor” Bjorklund
- Hasan “BlackHeart” Hammad
- Jornen “MoonChopper” Nishiyama (coach)
The remnants of the DarkZero roster, left to fend for themselves after the DarkZero Esports organization departed from VALORANT this past summer, found themselves a couple of other castaways in former 100T duelist Will and former C9 White coach MoonChopper. The group known as Dark Ratio rallied from a round one loss to The Nation in the double-elimination portion of the qualifier bracket, winning four straight elimination matches, capped off with some revenge over The Nation to punch their ticket.
Before the start of play, the Dark Ratio was signed by OverActive Media and rebranded to MAD Lions VALORANT. Between splits, the team made significant roster moves, leading to in-game leader Trick and a former player publicly beefing on Twitter.
Turtle Troop
- Peter “Governor” No
- Matthew “Wedid” Suchan
- Jack “Add3r” Hayashi
- Will “dazzLe” Loafman
- Daniel “Rossy” Abedrabbo
With no room for error, the Squirtle Squad roster made no mistakes during their upper bracket run of the last chance open qualifier. The roster features a bunch of talent that formerly played for the likes of NRG, XSET, Complexity, TSM Academy, Team Serenity, and more. During the last chance open qualifier, they didn’t drop a single series and claimed an NA Challengers League spot with a 2-0 win over OREsports.
Prior to the start of play, Squirtle Squad was forced to rebrand and chose the name Turtle Troop. Between splits, they picked up dazzLe from Shopify and Rossy from FaZe.
OREsports
- Jonard “Jonaaa6” Penaflor
- Dayton “Lear” Akau
- Vincent “PureVNS” Nguyen
- Chase “nillyaz” Linder
- Elijah “Zeldris” Hawkins
The sweetest reward awaits those who travel the longest road. In the final match of the final qualifier, OREsports finally claimed their sport in the league with a narrow 2-1 victory over Soniqs in the lower bracket final. For the group of players from teams like NYFU and Cloud9 Academy, it doesn’t matter how you get there, only that you’re there.
Published: Apr 19, 2023 11:17 am