Jake “POACH” Brumleve you might know from his former career as a Fortnite player from Team Liquid. However when VALORANT came out, he quickly made the switch and improved to get himself on a solid team. His first major signing on a VALORANT roster was with Andbox from October till last February, and has recently joined BBG on trial. Now that the team seems like it is getting finalized, Poach has been signed to the organization.
Raymond “Rarkar” Xu on the other hand is a bit less known of a player. He started his VALORANT career with team China Nguyen in May of 2020, and then later parted ways in July. He’s been teamless since then, but has now joined BBG to continue his VALORANT journey.
The team has already done big things, beating Sentinels 2-0 during the open qualifiers of Stage 2 VCT. Now what they need to do is maintain these results and continue taking down big names.
It has been announced that British player Ozzy is standing in for G2 Esports during Stage 2 of the VCT (VALORANT Champions Tour). Here is their announcement:
VALORANT Roster Update@ozzyxaxa will be standing in for @G2zeek during our next VCT Open Qualifier games. He'll be joining us as IGL during our Berlin bootcamp.
Oscar “Ozzy” Scott is a talented VALORANT player from Britain. His main role in the game is a controller and IGL, playing agents like Omen, Brimstone and Viper. Ozzy has been on quite a couple of teams since he kicked off his VALORANT Career. So far, he’s been a part of Unsigned, Dreamchasers, as well as HSDIRR. Now he’s gotten an excellent opportunity at showing that he deserves to be at the top with this G2 esports lineup.
Ozzy standing in for G2 during Stage 2 VCT – Why?
It’s no secret that G2 Esports’ VALORANT team has been desperate for a solid In-Game Leader. After their disappointing result in First Strike, the team dropped Davidp in search of a solid IGL. They tried it out with Zeek, a player that came from the Nolpenki squad, but they didn’t manage to get their desired results. The team placed 5th-8th in the Challenger 3 event, meaning that they didn’t qualify for Stage 1 Masters.
Now with G2 Esports’ VALORANT squad heading into a bootcamp in Berlin, the team has a perfect opportunity at regaining their number 1 status in Europe.
Former CS:GO coach Chet has announced that he is stepping down from coaching the NRGVALORANT lineup. Here is his announcement:
Today we mutually part ways with @chetsingh, Chet was fundamental in the creation of NRG Valorant. We thank you for everything you contributed to the #NRGFAM. We wish you all the best. pic.twitter.com/Qv2AGCAaHo
Chet stepping down from coaching NRG VALORANT – Why?
It’s no secret that NRG’sVALORANT team hasn’t been very successful. Since the beginning, the team struggled to set foot in Tier 1 tournaments, and never reached the level of the other top teams. Despite having such a talented lineup, the team hasn’t meshed together properly, and it’s very visible in their results. So far, their best result was a first place in the Nerd Street Gamers Monthly December tournament. Then, taking a look at their recent results, we can see a couple of 5th and 6th placements, which aren’t horrible, but can certainly be improved.
What’s next for Chet?
As stated by himself on his twitter, Chet is now looking for a similar coaching position, whether it be in VALORANT or CS:GO. It would certainly be amazing to see him coach another top tier team in Counter-Strike, but with so many opportunities in VALORANT, it’s looking like the choices are quite slim for him to switch.
Chet was an excellent coach in his time coaching CS:GO teams, having him back, with a North American team especially, will definitely make a lot of fans happy. But until any signing occurs, be sure to visit www.esportsguide.com for all your important esports news!
Former Dfuse players to join Team BDS– Who are they picking up?
As claimed in the article above, Team BDS are looking to sign the former Dfuse team. As you may know, the roster consists of 5 French players, as well as a coach and analyst. The team has found major success in Europe’s VCT 2021 Challengers 3 event, and almost had another solid result in the Masters tournament. Here are the team’s best results:
1st-4th at VCT 2021: Europe Stage 1 Challengers – 6th March 2021 – $10,446
5th/6th in VCT 2021: Europe Stage 1 Masters – 19th march 2021 – $10,000
1st at Underdogs – December 2020 – 20th December 2020 – $1,226
This is the lineup that BDS Esport will have:
Players:
Rodolphe “rodeN” Bianco
Logan “logaN” Corti
Dylan “hoppY” Aube
Jonathan “TakaS” Paupard
Alex “AKUMAAAAA” Lo Bello
Coach:
Flavien “wallax” Lebreton
Analyst:
Maxime “Max0b” Jacob
Around 3 weeks ago, the Dfuse Team organization announced that they had to part ways with their lineup due to administrative issues. Since then, the team has been looking for a new home, and it seems like Team BDS might just be the perfect choice.
Credits: Dfuse Team
BDS entering VALORANT is definitely a good sign for the European scene. Their dominance in Rocket League and other esport titles has been very evident, and seeing them involved in VALORANT is amazing to see. As mentioned above, the Dfuse lineup has had some promising results in the past, and now with this signing (if the deal goes through) the team will surely perform better!
KOLER joining Beastcoast VALORANT team – Who is he?
Yannick “KOLER” Blanchette is a professional VALORANT player from Canada. He started his esports career in 2020 when he debuted with the Immortals lineup back in May. The team was very promising at first, and they managed to get a solid amount of results. He was then poached by NRG for around 2 months, but unfortunately he could not find any success there. Now he’s gotten an excellent opportunity at redemption with this talented North American squad.
Here are KOLER’s best achievements in VALORANT:
3rd in FaZe Clan Invitational – 9th August 2020 – $7,500
3rd at T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown – 28th June 2020 – $5,000
1st in Red Bull AdrenaLAN – 20th December 2020 – $3,920
Despite them signing him now, he already represented Beastcoast in the previous 2 Challengers events in Stage 1 of the VCT. Although despite promising performances, they didn’t get the results they wanted.
What’s next?
Hopefully with this addition, Beastcoast adapt quickly as a team, and integrate KOLER in the best way possible. Now with the VCT Stage 2 set to kick off real soon, the team is definitely eager to perform better and make a name for themselves in NA.
Be sure to visit www.esportsguide.com for all your important latest esports news!
First up, we’ve got multiple changes coming to neglected agents within VALORANT. The majority of changes go towards Viper, which has been in the game since it’s release, but we’ve never got to see her full potential in competitive play. Yoru is also receiving a couple of changes, mainly involving his visual utility. Here are the Agent changes:
Viper
Toxin – Passive
Enemies that cross through Viper’s Poison Cloud, Toxic Screen, or Viper’s Pit are instantly inflicted with a minimum of 50 decay. Their decay level increases the longer they remain in contact with toxin.
While in cloud, Decay over time decreased from 15 to 10
When out of Viper’s cloud, delay before health regen decreased from 2.5 to 1.5
Poison Cloud – Q
Can now immediately be redeployed when picked up, but grants a temporary charge instead of a permanent charge
If active when Viper dies, Poison Cloud now remains up for an additional 2 seconds, or until Viper runs out of fuel.
Pickup distance increased from 200 to 400
Toxic Screen – E
If active when Viper dies, Toxic Screen now remains up for an additional 2 seconds before deactivating
Full blind distance from the wall increased to better match the blind distance from the edge of smokes
Snakebite – C
Equip time decreased from 1.1 to 0.8
Yoru
Blindside – Q
Flash activation time decreased from 0.8 to 0.6 seconds
Flash duration increased from 1.1 to1.5
Gatecrash – E
Gatecrash is no longer refreshed on kills and is instead replenished every 35 seconds
Lifetime of the Gatecrash fragment increased 20 seconds >>> 30 seconds
The range at which the Gatecrash fragment is revealed from stealth decreased 7m >>> 4m
Visuals for visibility range added to the moving fragment
Dimensional Drift – X
Ult Points reduced from 7 to 6
Yoru can now reactivate Gatecrash while in Dimensional Drift
Killjoy
Nanoswarm – C
Killjoy can now pick up deployed Nanoswarm grenades during the buy phase to get the charge back
Weapon Updates
BUCKY
Primary fire bullet spread decreased from 3.4 to 2.6
Decreased spread on Alt-fire from 3.4 to 2.0
Updated damage curve for both primary and alt-fire
0m–8m is 20dmg per pellet
8m–12m is 12dmg per pellet
Beyond 12m is 9dmg per pellet
Reduced amount of pellets in a right click shot from 15 to 5
“We want to focus the Bucky more on it’s actual primary firing mode (left click) and make that the strength you try to optimize when choosing a bucky vs its alternate firing mode (right-click). The right click should be more of a tool you can use when you can’t get into that effective left-click range, or you just need some reliable chip damage. The spreads are reduced on both to increase reliability and smooth the damage curve. The alt-fire’s significant reduction in pellet count is a trade off to being able to extend the range as much as it does for a shotgun.”
In this patch’s competitive updates, players are now able to view other player’s careers from the in-game leaderboard. All you need to do is right click on a leaderboard entry, and you’re able to view their career and check out all their recent match details, including their Act Rank progress. If you are on the Leaderboard, but don’t want to show who you are, you can toggle Secret Agent on.
HRTF – Head Related Transfer Function
Another interesting addition in this week’s update is HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function). HRTF uses a profile based on a single set of measurements, and may not feel natural at first to all listeners depending on how closely the profile matches their own measurements. Here’s an example of the comparison between HRTF being off or on:
“We encourage users to give HRTF a few tries as it may take some getting used to. Focused ear training outside a high pressure game environment may pay off in better ability to interpret the HRTF processing. We suggest a custom game or training for this!”
Very interesting changes in this week’s patch, especially the HRTF function. Audio is extremely important, especially in an intense 5v5 FPS. Seeing that Riot is prioritizing such features for their community is great to see, and shows that they care about the game they developed.
Cloud9 White win VCT 2021 Game Changers NA Series 1 – How did they do it?
Cloud9 started it all with a 2-0 victory versus Man I Love Fwogs in the Quarterfinals. This win placed them in the Semifinals versus the fearsome Dignitas Female team. Surprisingly this series was easy for Cloud9 as they won the series 2-0 (Haven 13-5, Ascent 13-3). After that, they progressed through to the Upper Bracket Final versus Moon Racoons Black. This series followed a similar result to the ones prior, as Cloud9 remained dominant, and won 2-0.
Meanwhile, CLG Red were slowly climbing through the lower bracket of the tournament, and finally reached the Grand Finals. Despite such a dominant run in the lower bracket they could not replicate their performance in the Grand Finals versus Cloud9 White. First map was given as a default to Cloud9 due to the Upper bracket, 2nd map (Icebox) was the closest with a 13-11 score, and the final map (Haven) ended 13-4, in favour of Cloud9. This is how the final map ended:
It’s great to see that the female VALORANT scene is getting some recognition. Hopefully with similar and more frequent events like these, the scene continues to grow and we get a fully functioning scene for everyone and every gender interested in competing in VALORANT.
Excel Esports reveal finalized VALORANT roster – Who did they bring?
As you may have seen in their previous announcement, the organization has signed Davidp from G2 as their main captain. Now with their newest announcement, the team consists of French players B1GGY and Happy, Swedish player Ale, and British player Honeybee.
Along with the above players, the VALORANT management for Excel has also brought on former CS:GO coach Jumpy as head coach, and Fields as their assistant coach.
This is the full Excel Esports lineup:
Players:
David “Davidp” Prins (Role: Smoker, IGL & Captain)
Morgan “B1GGY” Madour (Role: Support)
Marc “Honeybee” Begley (Role: Sentinel)
Vincent “Happy” Cervoni (Role: Flex)
Alend “Ale” Khalaf (Role: Duelist)
Coaching Staff:
Jimmy “Jumpy” Berndtsson (Role: Head Coach)
Sam “Fields” Greenfield (Role: Assistant Coach)
This is what Kieran Holmes-Darby, EXCEL ESPORTS Co-Founder & CGO said about the roster:
“We are really excited to present our full VALORANT roster and start competing against the best teams the scene has to offer. When selecting the final line-up we really took our time to find players and coaches who really understood our vision. We are in this for the long term and I truly believe we have created something special. Our ambitions for this year are limitless and I can’t wait to start this journey and experience it alongside our players, partners and community,”
With the 2nd stage of the VALORANT Champions Tour just around the corner, Excel needs to adapt quickly in order to get a solid result. When the Alliance roster was finalized they immediately got a great result in challengers, and that is exactly what XL need to do. Visit www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!
Please join us in welcoming @1fiziq to the main roster! 🥳
With this move, we have removed Eazy from the active roster. We would like to thank Eazy for his hard work and dedication during his time with eUnited. pic.twitter.com/4zJz0ThTbx
Lucas “fiziq” Blow is an American VALORANT professional player. He started his career with the Mixup roster during May and August of 2020. He then went on to play for Luminosity for just a month and was dropped later on. Just over 6 months now, he’s finally landed with the Eunited roster. He’s already played for them in recent C-Tier events, but unfortunately didn’t get any solid results.
Here are some of Fiziq’s best achievements in VALORANT so far:
1st in Nerd Street Gamers – Open #13 – 5th July 2020 – $1,500
1st at VALORANT Academy – North America: Closed Series Week 5 – 24th may 2020 – $700
2nd at Counter Logic Gaming – Blitz Cup Pro – 30th July 2020 – $500
Who will he replace?
With this roster move, Fiziq will be replacing Ryan “Eazy” Matthews on the main roster. Here is the full Eunited roster:
Tanner “scourge” Kages
Joseph “Turnup” Sicre
Joseph “Joseph” Rivera
Jason “jmoh” Mohandessi
Lucas “fiziq” Blow
Despite Fiziq’s lack of experience in Tier 1 VALORANT, he still has a lot to offer for the coming months. He’s shown his potential during stand-in periods with T1 as well as Rise Nation, but only time will tell if Eunited manage to get solid results.
In the early months of VALORANT’s release, Braxton “Brax” Pierce was one of the most looked-at players in North America. He was the first signing in the esport and is definitely super talented at the game. Unfortunately he and his team weren’t as successful as other teams, leading into multiple roster changes and switch ups. Brax departed the T1 lineup last February, and is certainly one of the hottest pickups in the scene. With the Sentinels poaching TenZ from Cloud9, TSM have limited options.
Credits: DreamHack
It’s no secret that the VALORANTTSM roster has been struggling in recent months. I think that everything started declining since their 2nd place result at First Strike, back in December. After that, it was a consecutive journey of 5th, 6th, and even 9th placements, or worse.
Here is a short list of TSM’s recent results in regional based events:
5th-6th at VCT 2021: North America Stage 1 Challengers 3 – 5th March 2021 – $3,000
5th-8th in VCT 2021: North America Stage 1 Challengers 2 – Qualifier – 14th February 2021
9th-16th in VCT 2021: North America Stage 1 Challengers 1 – Qualifier 28th January 2021
TSM to bring on Brax as 6th man for VALORANT – Why him?
Brax being an experienced player and fragger might just be what TSM need to get that winning edge back. With James “Hazed” Cobb being absent in recent TSM scrims, multiple people are thinking that he will be the one getting replaced. As stated in the report, Hazed will not be marked as benched, however will be the main rotation when Brax is put into play.
