FOKUS are the newest EMEA Valorant contenders to watch out for

FOKUS is an established German esports organization that only entered into the Valorant esports scene at the start of 2022.

They dove straight in by signing the former roster of the Naughty Evil Owls, a semi-professional line up consisting of: bucher, iluri, Kuba, vong and YaBoiLewis. FOKUS saw immense growth over the past five months, and after signing JUGi are now set to compete in the European VCT big leagues.

Who are they, and how did they manage this amazing feat?

Long grinds always pay off

Despite signing the entire Naughty Evil owls roster, the players had only competed together in a few small scale Valorant tournaments for a short while. This meant, the lineup had still been in its early phases, with only Jakub “Kuba” Dogan and Vong “vong” Nguyen having found previous success in the scene.

However, despite not having notable results competing with the Naughty Evil owls, the new FOKUS roster qualified for an official Riot event, the VRL 2022 DACH: Evolution Stage 1, immediately. While a line-up simply spending more time with each other definitely has a part in the turn of success, the decision of FOKUS signing Johnny Lobster as head coach was without a doubt the turning point. This move provided FOKUS with an advantage over newer teams, given such teams typically shy away or are simply unable to dedicate the resources to afford a team coach.

Following FOKUS qualifying for the VRL 2022 DACH: Evolution Stage 1, the organization placed further resources into the team, signing Jakob “JUGi” Hansen, a former CS:GO pro. Despite having less experience in Valorant compared to some of his other new teammates, his prior time with major teams like OpTic and Astralis greatly assisted FOKUS in later placing first in the VRL 2022 DACH: Evolution Stage 1.

JuGi subbed in for Kuba throughout the entire event, and snatched MVP in all three promotion series versus Surreal Esports, SupperMassive Blaze and BiG.

FOCUS finished the event undefeated.

Talk about rolling over former VCT Challengers teams in style. Having earned themselves a top first place finish in an VRL event, the team qualifier to compete in the VCT 2022: EMEA Challengers Promotion, a dream for all aspiring pro Valorant teams.

Before we close out our small team feature, check out JuGi flexing his muscles on some plebs:

Don’t forget to catch FOKUS in their first EMEA Stage 2 Challengers match starting next week.