ZETA DIVISION
ZETA DIVISION
Japan
Rank #12
Dep
Yuma Hashimoto
SugarZ3ro
Shota Watanabe
CLZ
Hikaru Mizutani
SyouTa
Shota Aoki
Xdll
Yuto Mizomori
has announced the signings of Yuto "Xdll"
Mizomori, Shota "SyouTa"
Aoki, Hikaru "CLZ"
Mizutani, and coach Ivan "Johnta"
Shevtsov from Japanese Challengers team
FENNEL
FENNEL
Japan
Rank #2
GON
. In addition, they have brought back their previous coach Motoyama "XQQ"
Hibiki as an assistant.
The player trio had been with FENNEL for at least the past two seasons, and CLZ's tenure of three years was the longest among players on the roster.
FENNEL had a successful 2024 campaign but fell short of securing Japan's lone qualifying spot into Pacific Ascension. In the grand final of Challengers League Japan Split 2, they lost to
RIDDLE ORDER
RIDDLE ORDER
Japan
Rank #1
JoXJo
Cho Byung-yeon (조병연)
Caedye
Amon Mateus Okakura
Seoldam
Park Sang-min (박상민)
yatsuka
in a five-map match that lasted over seven hours due to technical difficulties.
SyouTa finished with a server-high 95 kills, while Xdll's 203 ACS was the second-highest. CLZ's 1.09 rating was a team-high in the match as well.
All three players had some aspect of versatility in their agent pool in 2024. While both CLZ and Xdll are most often playing the Intiator role, they have both shown an effective ability to use Sage.
The same can be said for SyouTa, who throughout the FENNEL's VCL Japan campaign played the Controller and Sentinel roles, but shined brightest as a Duelist.
The signings seem to be ZETA's plan to rebuild their roster, which has depleted in recent months.
In 2024, ZETA Division failed to qualify for any international events, also missing out on the playoffs of Pacific Stage 1 and Stage 2 after a 7th place finish at Kickoff. They finished Stage 2 ranked 8th in the Pacific region.
The season came after a 2023 campaign that saw the Japanese side qualify for its second consecutive Champions event.
Just under two months after the conclusion of his 2024 season, longtime player and Japanese icon Laz announced his retirement from competitive Valorant, announcing his intentions to join the organization's content division.
Weeks later, yuran and hiroronn announced that they would be allowed to explore their options as restricted free agents, reducing the size of ZETA's active roster to just two.
The signings now completes the ZETA Division roster, which now rounds out to:
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