Guild Esports is going the way of several other prominent European VALORANT teams after signing an international roster of players to compete for the organization in the 2022 VCT campaign.
Guild announced the acquisitions of Jose Luis “koldamenta” Aranguren Herrero, Russel “Russ” Mendes, and Nikita “trexx” Cherednichenko today. They’ll join the sole remaining members of the original Swedish Guild lineup in Leo Jannesson and Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel, under the coaching leadership of recently re-signed former CS:GO player and coach André “BARBARR” Möller.
Guild acquired its original Swedish lineup prior to the start of VCT 2021. They were a competitive team in the EMEA region throughout the year, reaching Masters One, the Stage Two Finals, and the Stage Three Playoffs. But they never had that big breakthrough win that led to an international LAN appearance and their year ended with a heartbreaking loss to Team Liquid in the grand final of the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier. They moved the trio of draken, Yacine, and bonkar to the bench shortly after, releasing them a month later in late November.
In the beginning of November, however, Guild announced that both Leo and Sayf had renewed their contracts, ensuring that the duo would remain a part of the org’s future plans.
Koldamenta joins Guild after a brief stint with G2 Esports. The former Acend player was acquired by G2 during its midseason shake-up but wasn’t brought back after the group fell short of reaching Champions. Russ joins after half a year with TENSTAR, where he split duties between Skye and Sage. Trexx migrates over from the CIS region, having previously played for Team Singularity and briefly with OG, and will likely take on the primary duelist role.
Guild now follows the trend set by many of the top teams in EMEA, like Acend, Liquid, and G2, of going with an international roster. The new group will look to thrive early when the open qualifiers for EMEA Challengers One begin on Jan. 10. Based on their points earned in 2021, Guild may even receive a direct closed qualifier invite.
