Another week has come and gone, and once again VLR.gg's News Almost Missed is here to bundle together stories from around the world that didn't make it into a full article.
- Read More: July 30 weekly recap
Roster Changes
- Brimstone Gaming Brimstone Gaming Inactive dynamic reach plat1num Munkhdul Baterdene fletcher Fletcher Christian epathy Ngawang Chonjor , a fan favorite team in North America, have disbanded after being together for just over six months. All players and staff are now looking for new opportunities.
- Gen.G Black Gen.G Black Inactive Kazler Calvrix IssaNina kasumu kazz Kassandra Shire heist rose player "Stephanieser" has announced that she will be discontinuing her Valorant career. Recently the team added Lynn "Lynn" Clarke, which was covered in last week's weekly recap.
- Mohamed "Shalaby" Shalaby has returned to Anubis Gaming Anubis Gaming Inactive after a brief stint with Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #8 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso . He was initially reported to be joining Vitality for Stage 3 Challengers 2, but was only announced as a stand-in after the team removed Jesse "JESMUND" Terävä from the active roster.
- Jonathan "jona" Stelma and Thomas "brussen" Brussen, two founding members of the Angry Titans Angry Titans Inactive ngiN Engin Kor HyDrO Lukas Brill Valorant roster, have departed from the organization. The two of them part from an organization that they've been a part of since their careers in Overwatch. Brussen began his career with Angry Titans in 2019, while jona's first involvement with the organization began in 2017.
- CLG Red CLG Red Inactive itnothan Han Nguyen emluo mle Emily Peters athxna Mirna Noureldin dodonut Karnthida Chaisrakeo have moved Evalynn "Chobo" Chiu to the bench. This change comes after CLG Red made early exits in Stage 3 Challengers 2 by losing in the round of 128 to Hysteria and most recently in the group stage of the July Knights Monthly Gauntlet.
- FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder have announced that Martin "MAGNUM" Penkov has extended his current contract with the team through 2024. The sentinel main has been a part of Fnatic since April, and has aided them in their rise to the top of European Valorant competition. Even though Fnatic recently missed out on qualifying for the EMEA Challengers Playoffs, they currently sit at the top of the EMEA circuit standings with 350 points.
- Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks has officially been moved to the Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius bench. Last month, he stepped away from the team temporarily to take an indefinite medical leave. In his stead, the team added Amine "Amilwa" Saidi as their fifth player. ardiis has stated that while he is still under contract with Heretics, he is able to explore options with other teams.
Results
- Team Exploit Team Exploit Inactive recently came in first place in the 2nd Pakistan/Afghanistan qualifier in the VALORANT Conquerors Championship, putting them in the running for a spot in the APAC Last Chance Qualifier. They took the victory by defeating Team Arrow 3-0.
- NOTHING2LOSE NOTHING2LOSE Inactive ARIANARCHIST Ariane Lafrenière artStar Carolyn Noquez maryna starriebun Katherine So Ellie Elena Garland won the July edition of Champions Tour Game Changers Academy by defeating GX3 GX3 Inactive Jan alimonstr Alice Lew L4CE Lacey Dilworth Maddie Madison Mann Aniemal Annie Lee . They only dropped 2 maps throughout the entire tournament, both of which were in the playoffs. One of the two maps was the opening map in their series against Gen.G Team Bumble, while the other was the opening map against GX3 in the Grand Finals.
- In China, eight teams have advanced to the playoffs of Energy Vision. The top 8 teams include EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) , Totoro Gaming Totoro Gaming Inactive FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) ICEKING Cheng Wanpeng (程万鹏) Flex1n Lo Rui (罗瑞) YOU Yip Man Ho heybay Ho Shun Hei , Number One Player Number One Player Inactive Aowha XXXTACO Li Xu (许立) Anc1enT , KONE eSports Club KONE eSports Club Inactive sword9 Li Wei (李卫) yosemite Wang Lei (王磊) Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) Ninebody Ding Yi (丁毅) LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) , Tales of Eastern Tales of Eastern Inactive Yuk1no BEXEY , Inactive , Shenzhen NTER Shenzhen NTER Inactive AC Wei Jiacong (韦家聪) Scales Zhang Zhen (张震) Fuller Lin Yifan (林逸凡) , and LIZHI LIZHI Inactive PIKAWU 959y x y 洋 HongVTellG aut1sm Spitfires Xin Mingyan (辛明阳) destroyeR Gu Jiaming (顾佳鸣) nizhaoTZH Tang Zehao (唐哲昊) . The opening match of the top 8 playoffs will feature Tales of Eastern and KONE facing off each other on the Funspark Esports twitch channel.
Matches to Watch
- Over in Korea, the Stage 3: Challengers playoffs are underway.
- Vision Strikers Vision Strikers Inactive stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민) Zest Kim Ki-seok (김기석) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) , who missed out on making an appearance at Masters Reykjavik, have an opportunity to qualify for Masters Berlin by defeating TNL Esports TNL Esports Inactive TS Yu Tae-seok (유태석) exy Park Geun-cheol (박근철) Jinboong Kim Jin-won (김진원) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) .
- Additionally, NUTURN NUTURN Inactive , Korea's representatives at Masters Reykjavik, will look to extend their winning streak in Korean competition by defeating DAMWON Gaming in their quarterfinals match. Should they advance, the only other team standing between them and Masters Berlin is the winner of the F4Q/GochuGaru match.
- The first and second placing teams from the event will face off against teams from other regions around the world in Valorant's second international LAN event.
- The LATAM North Stage 3 Challengers playoffs are currently underway. E-Xolos LAZER E-Xolos LAZER Latin America North Rank #1 Mited Luis Gutierrez Jow Juan Camilo Preciado Ordoñez Feniz Thomas Molina Virtyy Leandro Moreno Darker Sebastián Castro Cicuamia and INFINITY INFINITY Inactive ligasa Rodrigo Castillo MatiS Matias Salgado bnj Benjamin Rabinovich have advanced to the winner's match after wins over Six Karma and Border Monsters respectively. The top 2 teams from that event will join Australs Australs Latin America South Rank #5 TAFG nx1 Kramz Haitam mrtn and KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete mta Nicolás González Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro in the combined LATAM playoffs to determine which team will be the sole representative of Latin America at Masters Berlin.
- The EMEA Challlengers Playoffs are here. Six european teams, three Turkish teams and three more hailing from the CIS region will battle it out for four spots in Masters Berlin.
- We recently had to reset your Pick 'Ems for this event due to a lower bracket change, so make sure you get your picks in again.
- On the other side of the Atlantic, the NA Challengers Playoffs approach. Eight of the best NA teams will fight for three spots at Berlin.
- Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid don't need to qualify or even win Berlin, as their presence in Valorant Champions is already guaranteed through Circuit Points. Should they qualify and win, their region will be awarded with one extra slot for Champions.
Other News
- As first reported by Liquipedia, FunPlus Phoenix have recently announced on their Weibo account that they are in search of Chinese players for a Valorant roster. No mention of the post has been made on their English Twitter account. The Shanghai-based organization made their first move into the European Valorant scene a year ago by signing ZyppanGoKill ZyppanGoKill Inactive Shao Andrey Kiprsky ShadoW Tobias Flodström Meddo Johan Renbjörk Lundborg Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov and have been a prominent force among Europe's top Valorant teams. However, the team has had varied results, with their last major tournament win being in Stage 2 Challengers 1.
- T1 Academy T1 Academy Inactive are registered to compete in the Nerd Street Gamers Summer Championship Last Chance Qualifier, marking one of the first times that the world gets to see how the team performs in tournament. Since the conception of T1 Academy back in April, the team has only appeared in DreamHack Beyond: NA, where they finished top 12.
- The BLAST Valorant twitter page may have been resurrected after being inactive since February. The last time a BLAST Valorant tournament was held was BLAST Spike Nations, which took place in November 2020.