CORRECTION: A previous version of the article did not clarify that SylFy of FAV gaming is currently inactive with LOB filling in for him. The article below has been updated to include this.

VLR is introducing a new weekly series: News Almost Missed. This series will cover notable news that was unable to make it into a full article from across the Valorant world.

This week, teams squeezed in their final roster moves before the start of VCT Stage 3. Other tournaments either wrapped up just before the start of Stage 3 or began as minor events within the VCT ecosystem.

Roster Changes

• A mix of well-known French talent has come together to form Bonsoir Bonsoir Inactive OniBy Theo Tarlier SoOn Terence Tarlier LaAw Mathieu Plantin . The team includes two former Overwatch League players: Damien "HyP" Souville and SoOn . It also includes two former Tier 2 Overwatch players in Jeremy "Hqrdest" Danton and Theo "OniBy" Tarlier, the latter being SoOn's younger brother. The team's final player is Mathieu "LaAw" Plantin. HyP and LaAw recently played together on Entropiq, and OniBy was recently released from OG.
• CGN Esports CGN Esports Europe Rank #5 elllement Dragan Milanović DaviH David Cruz BennY Benjamin Domgörgen Vince Vincent Kranz officially signed the core of CE Calling CE Calling Inactive Kuba Jakub Dogan Luc1d Kenny Gauthier Kühlmann Shazeon Rene Cappel BennY Benjamin Domgörgen . CE Calling qualified for the main event of Stage 2 Challengers 2 Europe before being eliminated by Team Liquid. CGN is bringing over Rene "Shazeon" Cappel, Benjamin "BennY" Domgörgen, and Kenny "Luc1d" Gauthier Kühlmann from CE Calling. The organization has also signed Leon "Leon" Roesberg and Gianluca "xTribune" Oehme, the latter having previously played for Wave Esports. The roster will be coached by Sebastian "Sebe" Kruft, the organization's previous coach, and Navid "Kapio" Javadi, who is most well-known for his decorated CS 1.6 career in which he won a number of premier tournaments with mousesports.
• Team Singularity Team Singularity Inactive Insider Artem Puzanov NLaaeR Ilya Koppalov B1SK Vitaliy Emelyanov Dimaoneshot Dmitriy Bandurka hvoya Aleksandr Eremin added Aleksey "slk" Lynksov to their coaching staff. He is the team's first official coach since Aleksandr "alexR" Kondratovitš left the team in May. He was signed alongside KARMA, who will be the team's manager.
• Inactive announced its new roster following the departure of four player players earlier in the week. The organization rebuilt the roster around Hisao "SylFy" Yone, the only player to remain with the team. All four new additions come from FIRST Gaming FIRST Gaming Inactive Howl ajisan YoWamu Aware KaKU : Anthem , TORANECO , bazz , and kaminoco . LOB is currently standing in for SylFy. The organization hopes to repeat its Stage 2 performance, in which it finished in Japan's top four, with its new roster.
• Rix.GG Thunder Rix.GG Thunder Inactive Mickebwoy Mikołaj Chojnacki memset Laurent Werly LATEKS Oliwer Fahlander frei Aaron Frei Luzuh Joseph Loose have officially signed Mikołaj "Mickebwoy" Chojnacki following weeks of trials. The Polish Sova's resume includes stints with THOSE GUYS THOSE GUYS Inactive frz Dominik Baran Mickebwoy Mikołaj Chojnacki starxo Patryk Kopczynski zeek Aleksander Zygmunt RETO Michał Silski and HONK HONK Inactive synsi Jere Virtanen Cloud Kirill Nehozhin Dreamas Aurimas Zablockis Destrian Tomas Linikas trexx Nikita Cherednichenko .
• Danny "HUYNH" Huynh debuted as a trial player for Ghost Gaming Ghost Gaming Inactive koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio NiSMO Marc-Andre Tayar aproto Alex Protopapas brawk Brock Somerhalder johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid in the opening round of North America's first Challengers event of Stage 3. He played Sova in each of the team's four maps. He played Jett for most of his time on Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) yoman Chae Young-moon (채영문) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) . He split with Gen.G in June after representing the organization for more than a year.
• Luminosity Luminosity Inactive moose Kaleb Jayne mada Adam Pampuch dazzLe Will Loafman bdog Brandon Sanders TiGG Tanner Spanu , a team that has recently finished its massive roster overhaul for Stage 3, has parted ways with their Head Coach Benjamin "trainer" Bravo, who first joined the organization in August of 2020. Jared "mac" Schneider has assumed the role of Head Coach in his place.
• TERROR.NET TERROR.NET Inactive fuzari Deivid Fuzari v1nny Vínicius Gonçalves chase Davi Mello dgzin Douglas Silva pANcada Bryan Luna , the former Inactive squad, signed with Stars Horizon. They'll open Brazil's Stage 3: Challengers 1 against Vikings, playing against FURIA or SLICK after that.

Results

• Cloud9 White Cloud9 White Inactive Bob Bob Tran alexis Alexis Guarrasi Jazzyk1ns Jasmine Manankil katsumi Katja Pfahnl meL Melanie Capone dominated Game Changers Series II to take home $20,000 in grand prize winnings. The team has won both Game Changers tournaments this year and won the one women's tournament event in the Ignition Series, the FTW Summer Showdown, prior to their signing. The team has won $85,000 over the three tournaments and have yet to lose a match. CLG Red CLG Red Inactive itnothan Han Nguyen emluo mle Emily Peters athxna Mirna Noureldin dodonut Karnthida Chaisrakeo finished second once again — the team's same result in the first Game Changers tournament.
• ez5 ez5 Inactive C0M Corbin Lee Trill Ashley Powell fiziq Lucas Blow Kanpeki Eric Xu gucc107 Andrew Gutnichenko and Noble Noble Inactive Precision Colin O'Neill bdog Brandon Sanders LeviathanAG Aleko Gabuniya payen Nathaniel Lopez ZK Timothy Ly finished first and second respectively in the June Qualifier for the NSG Summer Championship to qualify for the main event. They are the fifth and sixth teams to qualify for the event, joining Renegades Renegades Inactive , Soniqs Soniqs Inactive , Complexity Complexity Inactive RetrQ Alex Kadan trial Governor Peter No truo Robert Pham jcrueL Joel Cruel agM Michael Abood , and Rise Rise Inactive . The new Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #21 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le roster and Insight Insight Inactive Pix Babu sae Bruce Nguyen shen Dinxx each finished short of qualification this time around by one map in the semifinals.
• The first open qualifier for the Stage 3 of the Oceania Tour completed with a 2-0 victory for ORDER ORDER Inactive WRONSKI Michael Wronski rDeeW Riley Wilkinson Texta Matthew O’Rourke disk0 Cameron Mac Maple Elvin Sun over Wildcard Gaming Wildcard Gaming Inactive InfrequeNt Jesse Barker rDeeW Riley Wilkinson signed Dale Tang Nozz Noah McClafferty SWERL Ali Kobraee in the grand final. This is a flip of the Stage 2 results, when Wildcard Gaming beat ORDER 3-0 in the grand final. The tournament is the Valorant Champions Tour event for Oceania.
• Season 2 of the Strike Arabia Championship began opening round play. Teams that win their sub-regions will advance to the Strike Arabia Finals to play for an EMEA Last Chance qualifier.
• Remember Kirill "Cloud" Nehozhin, that player who was recently signed by Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #20 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ? Well, they're playing in the VCT CIS qualifier with No Pressure No Pressure Inactive Cloud Kirill Nehozhin Duno Mikhail Fokin arch Vladyslav Svistov 7ssk7 Artur Kurshin dinkzj Denis Tkachev who, after narrowly falling 2-0 to Gambit Esports Gambit Esports Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Chronicle Timofey Khromov d3ffo Nikita Sudakov sheydos Bogdan Naumov nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin , have qualified for the CIS Challengers Main Event over tyeasy tyeasy Inactive watasink Oleg Salomin Lightning Artem Lysenko MushroomY Artem Valeev flammable Evgeniy Tkachenko Vlady Vladislav Trofimov . They're currently not playing for an org right now, so no pressure on them or anything.

Other News

• Nathan "NBK" Schmitt announced his switch to Valorant. The former french pro CS:GO player spent years at the top of the game representing teams like Envy, G2, Vitality and OG. He won two Majors and lifted several other international trophies, considered among the top 20 players of Valve's FPS from 2013 to 2015.
• Another CS:GO Major winner, Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye, also announced his retirement from CS:GO. However, while there is much anticipation in the community for his transition to Valorant, his statement makes no reference to continuing within esports.
• The first Indian qualifier for the Valorant Conquerors Championship has kicked off, spread across ten days. VLR.gg will be covering the Top 16 of the qualifier bracket, with coverage varying for the other regions.

bleghfarec and Eutalyx contributed to this recap.