With the Advance Stage now over and the regular season coming up next week, here's all the teams that will be participating and how I think they'll place
- FENNEL
After coming off a Split 1 win, FENNEL look just as poised to win this split as well. They have a deadly combination of strats and firepower, with players like SyouTa and Xdll looking like the best players in the country. They had a near-perfect regular season last split, with their only two losses being against REJECT, who they would eventually beat in a 9-hour long grand final series. For Split 2, they made a very exciting move in signing former ZETA DIVISION player TENNN, who will be coming in to replace Derialy, who was benched allegedly due to personal issues. With how formidable TENNN was in 2022, he will definitely provide even more mechanical power, which will help the team fight for a spot in Ascension.
CLZ (IGL)
SyouTa
GON
Xdll
TENNN
- REJECT
REJECT has stood out in Split 1 for having a hyper-aggressive playstyle that has the capability of running over other teams in the region. Their two main duelists, Akame and BRIAN, have ran the show on multiple occasions, pushing out insane numbers with overwhelming site executes. They were the only team to hand FENNEL losses in the entirety of Split 1, in both the regular season and in playoffs, though they would eventually come just short of the Split 1 victory. With Hals becoming an official member of the roster, they have ample opportunity to refine their unique gameplay. REJECT is more than capable of seeing the same success in Challengers Japan, much as they did in Apex Legends just recently.
Akame (IGL)
BRIAN
GangPin
muto
Hals
- Sengoku Gaming
Sengoku Gaming were pretty underrated coming into the start of the Challengers league, but have definitely shaped themselves as a powerful force of the Japanese league. A large part of their success came from the twins Jinboong and Gwangboong, who have consistently fragged out throughout the first split, and with Jinboong putting up something numbers on Killjoy and Cypher in playoffs. Coming in as a middle-of-the-pack team out of the regular season, they made an unexpected run by making their first LAN event. There, they took FENNEL to a map 5 that was definitely winnable, but Xdll decided to have a life series. Coming into Split 2, they kept the same roster, but added former Jadeite IGL Art as a coach (If I don't see someone using an Odin I will be very upset). If they keep their form from last split, this team can definitely go far.
Misaya (IGL)
Gwangboong
Gatorada
NOBITA
Jinboong
- SCARZ
SCARZ's Split 1 run was nothing short of a disaster, considering the fact they were the Ascension runner-ups last year. Getting only 2 wins throughout the entire regular season, with most of that coming off of Yoshiii, definitely warranted a roster rebuild. Half of the roster got dropped after Split 1, with Only1 moving to T1's Academy roster, Allen moving to BC SWELL, and Tempura still in free agency. For this split, SCARZ expanded even further on their national diversity, bringing in tixx from Oceania, who's taking over the IGL role, and Yotaa from the French Challengers league. The two new players showed a lot of potential in the Advance stage, dominating their matchup against a formidable Crest Gaming Zst. Though I think they will need some time within the season to fully recover, this team definitely has a shot at restoring their former glory.
tixx (IGL)
Yotaa
Lumo
MrTenzouEz
Yoshiii
- NORTHEPTION
NORTHEPTION had a pretty solid run in Split 1, so it came as a surprise to see the team part ways with Yowamu as he moved onto BC SWELL. The current state of their roster is still unknown, though there have been various rumors that the team is planning to sign HaReeee from IGZIST based of some scrimbux (Anyone escaping that team is making the right decision) Last split, they came just shy of getting a direct LAN spot to REJECT, who they beat in the regular season. They would unfortunately choke the LAN spot again to Sengoku Gaming in the playoffs, ending the split at a still respectable 4th place. Esperanza and Thiefy were the main shooters on the team, with Wolverine being up there at times but being fairly inconsistent. Ultimately, this team's Split 2 performance will be dependent on who the team will end up getting for their last player, but I have pretty high hopes for them.
Esperanza (IGL)
Wolverine
Pepper
HaReeee
thiefy
- RIDDLE ORDER
A second content creator org has hit the Japanese scene. RIDDLE ORDER is owned by Vodka, a popular Japanese Twitch streamer. The watchparty for their match against VARREL racked up over 40k viewers, so it's safe to say this team has a lot of support. The clout extends to their signings, as they have a lot of big names like former NORTHEPTION player JoxJo, the Korean Jett Seoldam, as well as the remaining three players from ZETA DIVISION's Academy team. The only reason I have them this low was because their qualifying match in the Advance stage against VARREL looked pretty shaky, losing Breeze 3-13. However, JoxJo and Seoldam have plenty of experience under their belts and can shape their rookie players to be forces to be reckoned with. This team has the potential to surprise the other teams, much to the pleasure of their large fanbase.
JoxJo (IGL)
Caedye
Aace
Seoldam
yatsuka
- VARREL
I've expressed numerous times how much I didn't like watching VARREL play because any instance of big-brain strats or mechanical dominance were few and far in between. Split 1 was fairly uneventful, as they came pretty low in the playoff seedings, with a lot of general inconsistency, and got 2-0ed by Sengoku Gaming. For Split 2, they replaced Bangnan with another Korean duelist, former BC SWELL player kAyle. Though the overall trend lingered onto the Advance stage, he actually managed to score a handful of impressive shots against IGZIST. Hopefully I'll be able to see some more exciting gameplay from this team coming into this split.
BlackWiz (IGL)
kAyle
xnfri
L0B
zepher
- Murash Gaming
Owned by Junichi Kato, this team is one of VCJ's biggest viewer machines, as their Split 1 matches consistently racked up numbers in the 6-digit range. Their performance, however, hasn't really lived up to the mark. They scraped by the regular season as the lowest-seeded playoff team, where they lost convincingly to NORTHEPTION, with Wolverine's thumbs-down gesture practically making an enemy of MRG's entire fanbase. Outside of some plays from Absol and Reita, MRG very much lagged behind the other teams in terms of mechanics. In the advance stage, they lost pretty convincingly to SCARZ and barely beat out Crest Gaming Zst to claim the final Split 2 spot. As much as this team is a major contributor to Japan's massively popular Challengers league, I don't see this team going very far, unfortunately.
Reita (IGL)
Absol
million
Tonbo
Biju
Edit: HaReeee has been officially announced for NORTHEPTION, with Tempura as a 6th man
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