VALORANT does not yet have any big Esport-Events, but with T1 already a real super team. Now an Academy-Lineup is added. Are the Americans ahead of their time?
T1 and Riot games – that was a success story in the past. In League of Legends, the organization around world star Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is a three-time world champion.
But with the beta of VALORANT in April, it quickly became clear that T1 would also be involved in the new Riot Shooter. With Braxton “brax” Pierce, a CS:GO talent was directly hired. In addition, Skadoodle and AZK, two players from the former iBUYPOWER line-up, which was involved in one of the biggest scandals in esports, joined the team.
In VALORANT there is a second chance and the team is ready to give everything. The beginning was the streamer event Twitch Rivals, which the team also won sovereignly. Many lineups of streamers competed against the self-proclaimed professional team. A first demonstration of power.
Now comes the Academy team around former Overwatch and APEX Legends players. In addition, Daniel “fRoD” Montane, a real Counter-Strike legend, supports the teams.
Other teams are taking a more restrained approach to the new game. There are hardly any real professional teams, although formations are forming. Without a concrete Esport-future in the ecosystem VALORANT, T1 already goes all-in.
Perhaps the organization will gain an advantage at the very beginning of the game. That an early turnaround to new trend titles can be worthwhile was shown, for example, by the winning streak of ninjas in pyjamas at the start of CS:GO. At that time there were 87 wins in a row because other teams were still playing the old games 1.6 and CS:Source.
