Game Changers competition is in full swing, but much more news happened all around the world. Here are some stories you might have missed, all bundled together in one place.
Read more: News Almost Missed September 24
Roster Changes
- Ashton "Frosty" Rakoske has become the fifth player for Knights Knights Inactive . The team has been without a fifth since Terry "dsr" Rioux left the team about two months ago.
- / Ashley "Trill" Powell has revealed that due to visa complications, he will not longer be able to play with Built By Gamers Built By Gamers Inactive . While not an official member of the team, he has been on trial with the team since July in place of Tristan "Critical" Trinacty.
- Henry "Tsuya" Nguyen has departed DIVIZE DIVIZE Inactive pwny Joshua VanGorder In0X Theodor Bjornsson ChurmZ Corey Koch jovahnii Jovanni Miramontes GMAN Gabriel Ordaz stand-in following a group exit in the September Knights Monthly Gauntlet.
- DarkZero Esports DarkZero Esports Inactive have benched Nick "Harmon" Harmon. This roster change comes after former coach Zack "huuaw" Solomon split from the team last week.
- After being absent from the team's performance at Masters: Berlin, Envy Envy Inactive Marved Jimmy Nguyen Victor Victor Wong crashies Austin Roberts FiNESSE Pujan Mehta yay Jaccob Whiteaker coach Michael "Mikes" Hockom has announced that he will no longer be working with the team due to "a 3 month period of waiting for a contract to be completed and a concerning lack of communication from the org". While not an official member of the team, he has been coaching the Envy roster since June.
- / Alend "Ale" Khalaf, formerly of EXCEL EXCEL Inactive Moe40 Muhammad Hariff chiwa Egor Stepanyuk paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski Foxie Tyler Lowton ALIVE Gilad Hakim , has been released from the team. He will play with HSDIRR HSDIRR Inactive Ale Alend Khalaf vicious Benjamin Guilotte lyNxi Felix Björklund Meddo Johan Renbjörk Lundborg freddan for the time being, who are slated to sign with KOVA KOVA Inactive Supmah Hampus Svensson JESMUND Jesse Terävä Ale Alend Khalaf vicious Benjamin Guilotte shéd Jani Marjanen , according to sources close to VLR.gg.
- Giants also announced their entry into the European Game Changers scene, signing a Spanish roster under the Giants G4E Giants G4E Inactive Toki Maria Perez Metzly Maribel Esteban Marialicious Leviathan Sandra Cabeza MissLaia Laia Miralles stand-in Poetite Mercedes Goicoechea stand-in Paula Paula Moreno González stand-in banner. The team failed to make it out of the Game Changers Series I: EMEA qualifier.
- Team Singularity have announced their female roster, Team Singularity Female Team Singularity Female Inactive minemosynE Minem Alkir Lakhesis Gülcem Arslan Nariel Yaren Cirit Ked Pelin Yalkın Çingiroğlu ESTEE Candan Yetişkin . The roster's first showing comprised of a top 16 exit in the first EMEA Game Changers event.
- Eternal Fire Eternal Fire Europe Rank #54 CyderX Caner Demir Izzy Baran Yılmaz QutionerX Doğukan Dural Anima Uğurcan Aydin Brave Eren Kasırga have also announced their entry into Valorant, bundling together five Turkish players from differing teams.
- Former DAMWON Gaming DAMWON Gaming Inactive Lakia Kim Jong-min (김종민) allow Park Sang-wook (박상욱) exy Park Geun-cheol (박근철) Estrella Park Gun (박건) Esperanza Jeong Jin-cheol (정진철) player Lee "Kelly" Tae-hyung has announced his retirement from competition.
- ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #2 Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani SyouTa Shota Aoki Xdll Yuto Mizomori have suspended Takemori "takej" Shogo for three months for boosting accounts in game.
- Inactive have announced the departure of "kaminoco" and additions of xnfri and Phantom .
- / Inactive have announced a new roster consisting of FifTy , who came from the past iteration of DeToNator DeToNator Inactive K1llgrave FifTy , and new faces. The new members include Kosuke "Kosuke" Nishida, K1llgrave , MrTenzouEz , and Xiaonuo .
- / TSM X TSM X Inactive athxna Mirna Noureldin mle Emily Peters dodonut Karnthida Chaisrakeo bungee April Haight Ellie Elena Garland have made Karnthida "dodonut" Chaisrakeo an official member of the team. She joined in July on trial in place of Zoe. Additionally, the team has added Reptar to their coaching staff as an analyst.
- Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie, formerly of Team SMG Team SMG Inactive , has now become a member of Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #3 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov . He will be replacing Zhan "shiba" Teng Toh in the active lineup, with the latter now moving to a substitute role on the team.
- BOOM Esports BOOM Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #2 dos9 Zhumagali Dastan Famouz Fikri Zaki Hamdani Shiro Hildegard Arnaldo NcSlasher Sheldon Andersen Chandra BerserX Rizkie Adla Kusuma have announced that former XcN Gaming XcN Gaming Inactive fer player Muhammad "frostmind" Rafi Diandra will be joining them for the APAC LCQ.
- Bren Esports Bren Esports Inactive have begun building a new roster following the departure of their former roster, now known as Team Secret Team Secret Asia-Pacific Rank #7 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes JessieVash Jessie Cuyco Wild0reoo Brheyanne Christ Reyes 2ge James Goopio Jremy Jeremy Cabrera . Their most recent announcement has revealed that Xavier "xavi8k" Juan is the first member of the team's new roster.
- The entire roster of Fox Gaming Fox Gaming Inactive Aspire Imad Salman Mapo Othmane Djebbour Slap Mohamed Ayoub Sabouni Loop Diaa Ghannam NoXuS Sabir Habibi , one of MENA's top performing teams, has parted with the organization.
- Former Cloud9 Blue player Josh "shinobi" Abastado has temporarily joined Global Esports Global Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #38 patrickWHO Mark Musni UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) Kr1stal Savva Fedorov kellyS Kelly Sedillo Papi Federico Evangelista as a coach. Shinobi will help "shape up" the team for the upcoming APAC LCQ.
Results
- Cloud9 White Cloud9 White Inactive Bob Bob Tran alexis Alexis Guarrasi Jazzyk1ns Jasmine Manankil katsumi Katja Pfahnl meL Melanie Capone and Shopify Rebellion GC Shopify Rebellion GC Inactive are currently dominating Game Changers Series III: North America. Both teams have dismantled their upper bracket opponents, with Shopify Rebellion dropping the only map between both squads.
- LVP Rising Series #4's groups have concluded. While there are new names in the tournament and playoffs, there weren't many surprises in the tournament. Notably, Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin , SUPRMODE Gaming SUPRMODE Gaming Inactive tankzor Artyom Bond yuudai Danila Ovchinnikov SimonD4rk Alexandr Skovbel Vlady Vladislav Trofimov , Acend Acend Inactive ALIVE Gilad Hakim musashi Alessio Xhaferi pyrolll Artur Minin cullumx Nikolaj Cullum Andersen chiwa Egor Stepanyuk , and TENSTAR TENSTAR Inactive Br0die Jack Emmott KRAY Calum Knight Polvi Niko Polvinen xms Alexandre Forté doma Domagoj Fancev have locked in their place in the Rising Series Finale, which is supposed to take place in Madrid near the end of this year.
- The Esports Club Gauntlet - Season 2 Playoffs saw an early exit from Global Esports Global Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #38 patrickWHO Mark Musni UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) Kr1stal Savva Fedorov kellyS Kelly Sedillo Papi Federico Evangelista . Velocity Gaming Velocity Gaming Asia-Pacific Rank #18 Hotsauz Yousef Imad El-Yousef tesseract Jon Michael Piga Yukxx Yukee Lampa choosie Matthew Lorenzo Te Dignified and Enigma Gaming Enigma Gaming Inactive Divine Yeoh Chun Ting FREY Ingram Tan STYRON Tidus Goh Xan artn Ayrton Soh both bested the India representative in the APAC LCQ in the upper and lower bracket, respectively, which eliminated Global Esports from the tournament.
Matches to Watch
- In North America, Series III of the Game Changers circuit is nearing conclusion. The next matchday will see four lower bracket matches, with Cloud9 White Cloud9 White Inactive Bob Bob Tran alexis Alexis Guarrasi Jazzyk1ns Jasmine Manankil katsumi Katja Pfahnl meL Melanie Capone and Shopify Rebellion GC Shopify Rebellion GC Inactive fighting for the first grand final spot.
- The Esports Club Gauntlet - Season 2 is also approaching its end. After nearly a month of competition, only three teams remain. Team XO Team XO Inactive will face F1LS Esports F1LS Esports Inactive sh1vy Shivam Ajmani KnightRider Abhay Mulchandani Rafaaaa RvK Rishi Vijayakumar Scargod Divyansh Jain , who were knocked down by the former in the first round, in the lower bracket final. The winner will duke it out in the grand final against Velocity Gaming Velocity Gaming Asia-Pacific Rank #18 Hotsauz Yousef Imad El-Yousef tesseract Jon Michael Piga Yukxx Yukee Lampa choosie Matthew Lorenzo Te Dignified , who notably relegated Global Esports Global Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #38 patrickWHO Mark Musni UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) Kr1stal Savva Fedorov kellyS Kelly Sedillo Papi Federico Evangelista and Team XO to the lower bracket.
- In conjunction with TEC, the national tournaments of Skyesports Championship 3.0 will all end this week. This includes tournaments for India, Pakistan/Afghanistan, Sri Lanka/Nepal/Bhutan, and Bangladesh/Maldives. Until October 4, several Main Event and all the Wildcard teams will be decided. The Wildcard event runs from October 5 to 7, holding the final slot for the Main Event.
- The KJC eSports Valorant Invitational is well underway in the Southeast Asian region. After the conclusion of the Group Stage on October 3, the second best team of each group will play the Last Chance Qualifier on October 4. Only two will leave the LCQ to reach the playoffs, which are scheduled between October 7 and October 10.
Other News
- In an official ruling by Riot, Sophia "slaze" Ramirez of Polaris Polaris Inactive Shockah caydia Zoe Servais Katarina Starlight lunah has been banned from competing in Riot-sanctioned competition for three months. She was reportedly "found to have repeated queued together into Competitive with cheaters" and "In multiple instances, the cheater was banned mid-game, logged into a new account, and proceeded to requeue with Slaze, even after she had received a notification of cheater detection." slaze has rebuked this ruling, claiming that she has not played with cheaters nor played with players that have been banned for cheating.
- Former Heroic and North player Daniel "mertz" Mertz has announced that he is retiring from competitive CS:GO to pursue a career in Valorant.
- Crazy Raccoon Crazy Raccoon Inactive have suspended Hiroto "rion" Tateno and Jyousuke "zepher" Matsuda for three months and one month respectively for boosting. The two used to be part of the Crazy Raccoon Valorant squad, but moved to content creation in late June following a roster rebuild that brought on four new members. They were suspended in the same incident that ZETA DIVISION player takej was issued a suspension in.
Eutalyx contributed to this recap.