VALORANT Weekly Roster Roundup #2

Our second Weekly Roster Roundup covers global roster changes from the week of 7th March to the 13th.

EUROPE

• - Rui "TugaTV" Ribeiro joins Rebels Gaming as a backup player for the VRL - Spain: Rising - Stage 1 - Main Event playoffs. The team has so far beat Team Queso 3-0 to move on to the semifinals against KOI. Source
• - Thunderbolts Gaming have signed Mehmet "corr0" Alp Vural and Mustafa "DubzWoW" Doğan as their coach and analyst respectively. Source
• - Çağrı "KyRo" Bolat has been relieved of his coaching duties by Fire Flux Esports. Long time coaches Salih "marqnue" Onaran and Erim "mavera" Sasal continue their stints with the organization. Alongside that, Kaan "Brasco" Elver has also been released by the team after being benched since last year. Source, Brasco Source
• - Alhan "Jakexd" Meguenni enters free agency after a short month-long spell with Team Heretics, where the team finished bottom of the table at VRL - Spain: Rising - Stage 1 - Main Event. The Frenchman was replaced by Cista "keloqz" Wassim in a surprising move from G2 Esports. Source
• - KTRL have completely rebuilt their roster with a Romanian focus, adding Burcea "HYPNO" Leonida-Gabriel, ara, Ghiță "alddy" Alin, styl1sh, Adrian "UNCAGED" Mincan, and Michael "mikigoalie" Buzek, who is the only Czech player on the team. As a result the previous lineup, including Turk Berkay "dothem" Eroğlu, has been released. KTRL Source
• - 5MOKES has disbanded, Vladimir "xenon" Lobov revealed on Twitter. The Russian cited the doubtfulness of the return of VRL - CIS: Milestone - Stage 1 - Main Event and questions over the eligibility of Russian players. xenon Source
• - Serkan "SHALZ" Erdoğan has been benched by Fenerbahçe Esports following their poor performance at VRL - Turkey: Birlik - Stage 1 - Main Event. The Turk played his last match for the organization in a 1-2 loss to Galakticos, where he put up a 0.62 rating with 28 kills across three maps. SHALZ remains under contract but is free to explore his options, he said on Twitter. Source
• - Tolga "bacyx" Bacak has terminated his contract with Digital Athletics and moved into free agency, the Turk revealed on his Twitter account. The Turkish team had picked up a completely different roster for the 2022 season with big names like Engin "ngiN" Kor and Engin "MAJ3R" Kupeli, meaning bacyx hasn’t played an official match since Open Fire All Stars 2021 in August last year. Source
• - Brandon "Phardon" Perez Testa and Brandon "Jaf" Jaf have announced that they will be leaving H2O after the team finished last in the group stages of VRL - Northern Europe: Polaris - Stage 1 - Main Event and did not get signed as a whole. The Venezuelan has frequented Chamber and Killjoy as of late and holds a 0.81 rating and 175 ACS in the last three months, while Jaf is seen playing controllers and has a 0.98 rating and 182 ACS over a three month period. Source
• - UNtapped will be playing in the upcoming VCT Game Changers with a new lineup, consisting of Annika "mediKa" Lambertz, Samantha "Samsi" Caddell, Amy "amy" Lai, Jade "jade" Duffy, and Lada "h6tedthemost" Kozhemyakina. The Game Changers EMEA Series 2 is set to be played from April 25th to May 8th. The duo of mediKa and h6tedthemost has played together before in FUT Female late last year. Source
• - M4LIK have returned to activity for the first time since VCT 2021 - Stage 3 - Europe - Challengers 2 - Open Qualifier in the summer of 2021. Their new roster features Henry "kingHaS" Simmons, Leonard "eleo" Kulish, Alex "Alyx" Morrow, Louis "louitan" Beresford, and Lewis "C4RTER" Carter. Alyx has put in some impressive performances as of late, with a 1.26 rating and 259 ACS over the past three months playing with Vexed Gaming. Source

NORTH AMERICA

• - Shopify Rebellion Female have parted ways with long-standing member Han "it not han" Nguyen, who is now a free agent. The American represented the organization for over a year, starting in March of 2021, and has played a variety of agents, most frequently Sova and Sage, and boasts an impressive 1.09 rating throughout her career. Source
• - Thomas "Trippy" Schappy has left FaZe Clan after six months in the coach role. He explained on his Twitter account that he wants to move away from coaching back into a player role as an in-game leader. FaZe Clan Source, Trippy Source
• - Cloud9 Academy have added Muhtadi "b0ssy" Al-Sammarraee, Tanner "geeza" McGhee, and Chase "nillyaz" Linder to their lineup. b0ssy has most recently had a stint with SoaR, while the others come from unsigned rosters. All three players come into the team with 1.0+ ratings over three months and look to be great future prospects. Source

BRAZIL

• - Botafogo eSports have announced a new roster with Elias "DRAGziKW" Santiles, Victor "Urango" Rodrigues, Iago "Nether" Santos, Fernando "nandinh0" Brenha, and Willian "wilfps" Bello. This means they’ve parted ways with their previous roster, including former Team Vikings man João "Brinks " Victor, after failing to qualify for VCT 2022 - Brazil - Stage 1 - Main Event and a 7th-8th place finish at Aorus League - Brazil #5. Source
• - Rise Gaming have acquired the services of LUSKKÃO. The Brazilian was previously playing on the unsigned Big Conos as a flex rifler, most recently as Breach and KAY/O, and has an incredible 1.17 rating and 233 ACS in the last three months. Source

LATAM

• - Pharaoh Esports have picked up a full new Argentinian roster featuring Bruno Esteban "AR4N" Betanzos, Jacinto "CrayZ" Matthew Hunt, Martín "Tinchoff " García, Mateo "Kardash" Verni, and Riveiro "Neto" Neto. The squad previously used to play under the Sem Org banner and most recently picked up the title at Valorant Survival Cup 2022: LATAM South Stage 1. They have replaced the previous lineup, which included Javier "jvhz" Hernández and Carlos "kynsinho" Soto, following their 9th-16th place finish at VCT 2022 - LATAM South - Stage 1 - Open Qualifier Phase 1, which meant they could not move on to the next qualifier. Source
• - EBRO Gaming have announced the departure of Fernando "Sushi" Campos from their active lineup. The removal comes after the team finished 5th at VCT 2022 - LATAM South - Stage 1 - Challengers and missed out on the playoffs. Sushi elaborated further on his Twitter account that he is now a free agent and is open to playing a flex role, although he did play a sentinel/Viper role on eBRO. Source
• - KRÜ Esports have added Héctor "Wait" Paucay Perez as their sixth player. The elite Latin American organization, who attended both international Masters events as well as Champions last year, have been in good form this season, picking up a runners-up spot at VCT 2022 - LATAM South - Stage 1 - Challengers. The Chilean last represented Wanderers eSPORTS in September last year and was primarily using Sova. Source

Japan

• - Solar Anthem revealed the dissolution of their VALORANT roster, meaning their lineup consisting of hidry, Akio, Shu "fujiyama" Sugiyama, Hakuja, and ganhoi, are now free agents. The team was assembled at the beginning of the year, but failed to make it through VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Week 1 - Open Qualifier and VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Week 2 - Open Qualifier, thus missing out on Challengers. fujiyama looks like the pick of the bunch, boasting a 1.39 rating over the aforementioned two events. Source
• - Storks Phalanx have released their current lineup and are looking to rebuild the team, the organization said on Twitter. The squad included Kamuro, Dualing, rez1v, MerRy, and FeitaL, who are now free agents. Storks Phalanx cited the 5th-8th place finish at VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Week 2 - Open Qualifier as the reason for the chance, which meant the team could not make it to Challengers. Source

MENA

• - SCYTES Esports has benched Nikhil "Krumszz" Deshpande, the player revealed on Twitter. Krumszz played their last game with the organization in a 1-2 loss against 01 Esports, knocking them out of VRL - MENA: Resilience - Stage 1 - GCC & Iraq Main Event. The Indian himself heavily plays Astra, but has seen to flex onto other agents, while posting a 0.94 rating and 179 ACS over the past three months. Source
• - Amokrane "ZMART" Ahmed has parted ways with Monsters have hearts, according to the player’s Twitter. The Algerian last represented the team at VRL - MENA: Resilience - Stage 1 - Levant and North Africa Main Event, where they finished in 6th place and missed out on the MENA Grand Finals spot. The duelist, who mainly plays Jett and Raze, boasts a 1.18 rating and 259 ACS over the last three months. Source

India

• - VLT Asteria have released their full lineup, the organization announced on Twitter. The lineup consisted of Jagruti "Hyphae" Moholkar, Akanksha "muffinloop" Sukhramani, Shreya "ShreyUwU" Prasad, Neha "CaspeR" Sottany, Iqra "BriTSy" Rauf Khan, and Saloni "Meow16K" Pawar. The move comes after the team most recently placed 9th-12th at VCT GC 2022 - APAC - Open 1. Source
• - Optimistic eSports have shut down completely according to the team’s manager Abhinav "CeLtOs" Shukla. He explained that there were some internal issues with the organization’s owner and that the players have not been paid for the last two months. However, the team will be playing together as the unsigned Team Punished. Optimistic eSports last played at Marcos VALORANT Invitational, where they placed 3rd-4th, and Ayan "ayaNq" Bhattacharya was the highest rated player at the tournament with a 1.43 rating. Source