Vaughn Perez
In this weekly column, Wingspan staff writes about the gaming and esports community.
After the release of the 30 teams that made franchising heading into 2023 Valorant Champions Tour, esports organizations went berserk trying to lock down the best team with the talent available on the field. The league went through “roster mania” with players being bought out, dropped, traded, and even moved across regions to find a new home.
Organizations had to come up with creating a team of five main players and up to five extra players on their bench. And, after over two months, across three regions, organizations are finally announcing the teams they’ll be going into 2023 with and some have hit the mark, while others seem to fall a little short.
Here’s my ranking of each organization on how their team ended up, from best to worst.
Americas
Cloud 9
Sentinels
100 Thieves
NRG
LOUD
LEVIATAN
Evil Geniuses
Furia
KRU Esports
Made in Brazil (MIBR)
Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA)
Team Liquid
Natus Vincere (NAVI)
FNATIC
Karmine Corp
Team Heretics
KOI
Giants
BBL Esports
Team Vitality
FUT Esports
Pacific
DRX
Paper Rex
T1
Talon Esports
Zeta Division
Global Esports
Gen.G
Team Secret
Detonation Gaming
Rex Regum Qeon
Now the first tournament to showcase these teams isn’t until Feb. which will be held in São Paulo, Brazil. I’m looking forward to it, especially with the rosters now released and I see where the best players landed. The main focus from this kickoff tournament is that we’ll see which teams have been able to mesh well since most are coming in with a brand new five man.
Now for organizations and talent that couldn’t find their way onto a franchised team doesn’t mean that they’re fully out of playing. It’s unfortunate that they couldn’t make it to the main stage, but they get to play through the ascension league, however since only one team can make it to the main stage per region, the road will be extremely difficult.