Valorant Roster Shuffles – Five key roster changes ahead of VCT Stage 3
The best Valorant teams have all made tweaks to their rosters ahead of VCT Stage 3. Lets break down some of the most notable changes and set expectations for the upcoming stage.
The start of VCT Stage 3 Challengers 1 is soon approaching, with qualifiers for both North America and Europe set to begin at the start of July 2021. Stage 3 is the last stage for teams to prove themselves and earn a qualification to the world class Valorant Champions events. This has led to various mediocre Stage 2 teams to take drastic action, making major roster changes in hope for some positive change.
Tenz officially signs to Sentinels
A bit of old news, but Tenz officially signing to Sentinels is a big confirmation for the upcoming stage. Previously, Tenz had competed for Cloud 9 before becoming a full-time streamer, a move likely attributed to Cloud 9’s inability to exploit his full potential. Sentinels then repeatedly extended a loan for Tenz following the Sinatraa scandal. However, while Sentinels won the VCT Challangers and Master event, this had all been while Tenz had been on a loan from Cloud 9, making his future with Sentinels uncertain.
Fortunately, Cloud 9 had agreed to sell Tenz’s contract to Sentinels, allowing him to play with the team for the foreseeable future. The current roster of Sentinels is the main favorite to dominate the NA scene heading into the Berlin Masters.
dephh and Zekken joins XSET
XSET has decided to sign and appoint a new in-game leader, dephh. Rory “dephh” Jackson had previously competed for Dignitas before taking a short hiatus due to the team’s failure to qualify for the VCT Stage 2 Challengers 1. However, now equipped with a stronger line-up, dephh is once again able to prove himself as he did in 2020. To finalize their new super competitive roster, XSET also signed Zachary “zekken” Patrone to the team as the 6th player on the active lineup.
Both changes may be key to XSET’s much needed change to recover back their previous form through the new in-game leadership. With him, Dephh brings his long CS:GO experience acquired with Complexity between 2016-19.
G2 swaps players with Acend and Heretics
Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt , formerly playing with G2 Esports will be heading to Acend. Subsequently, koldamenta previously from Acend will be joining G2 Esports. Furthermore, paTiTek and ardiis have been shipped off to Team Heretics. In their stead, Team Heretics sent nukkye and AvovA.
The inability in G2, Acend and Heretics to adapt caused their form to drastically decline as they all struggled to keep up with the rest of the scene. G2 Esports was the tyrant in 2020, winning multiple events before failing to perform in the recent 2021 VCT Stage 2 Challengers event.
This player swap between the three teams while unlikely to bring any major change on its own, is a welcome step for change. Such roster moves are essential for both teams to compete in the evolving Valorant pro scene.
T1 re-sign brax and promote dawn
Once again, T1 is looking to Braxton “brax” Pierce to bring the team glory at the upcoming VCT Stage 3. To this end, they also promoted Anthony “dawn” Hagopian to the main roster as well. The old-new T1 squad is looking good for this upcoming stage with plenty of talented CS:GO veterans.
We are yet to see them on the server, but the boys are looking confident that this team can deliver.
Natus Vincere enters the Valorant scene and OG rebuilds
Two of the most notable gaming organizations have both committed to Valorant.
Navi, have announced they will enter the Valorant scene by signing Cloud, a 17 year old top tier Valorant talent with a huge amount of potential. Currently, Navi has only signed Cloud to their Valorant line-up, and is extremely unlikely to compete in upcoming open qualifiers for Stage 3 Challengers 1. However, it is likely we will see Navi compete in Stage 3 Challengers 2, a move for a slim chance to qualify towards Valorant Champions.
On the other hand, OG has rebuilt their roster for the upcoming Challengers stage. The old Monkey Business roster has been broken apart with only TviQ and uNKOE remaining. The rest of the slots are filled with Tomas “Destrian” Linikas and Nikita “trexx” Cherednichenko, while Harry “DPS” MacGill got promoted to the main roster.
Both the EU and NA regions are leveling up their scenes exponentially ahead of Stage 3. It remains to be seen how it all pans out until the Masters Berlin rolls around.
