VRL East: Surge is the first of the eight Valorant Regional Leagues to announce its invites with AWARIA AWARIA Inactive YouBreak Piotr Chodoła Katu Kacper Twórz Stix Wojciech Chamielec grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko saiko Kacper Kucharski , Anorthosis Famagusta Esports Anorthosis Famagusta Esports Inactive , Straight Outta Retirement Straight Outta Retirement Inactive Pjotr Petr Janiš ROUSIK SH0UTyy Michal Glacner marteen Martin Pátek Hasaa Radim Haša , need more DM need more DM Inactive Haxtrax Elek Simon szimpli Bence Soós crazyd33R Gábor Német Barcode Kevin Bana bzt Renátó Bárányos , and KTRL confirmed to be in attendance.
Five teams from separate regions received direct invites
As the league encompasses several Eastern European countries, organizers Frenzy have opted to invite one top team from Poland, Greece, Romania, Czech Republic, and Hungary. These five squads will be joined by three teams from the open qualifier to play in an eight-team round-robin stage. The top four will advance to a double-elimination bracket where the winner will receive a slot in the VCT Promotion tournament. The last team will be demoted, while the remaining two squads will play the VRL Promotion tournament.
Hailing from Poland, Awaria have been around for a long time and were originally known as Pit Stop Pit Stop Inactive Katu Kacper Twórz YouBreak Piotr Chodoła saiko Kacper Kucharski Stix Wojciech Chamielec vilczek . The team have since represented PACT PACT Inactive YouBreak Piotr Chodoła vilczek Katu Kacper Twórz saiko Kacper Kucharski Stix Wojciech Chamielec and Invicta Gaming Invicta Gaming Inactive YouBreak Piotr Chodoła Katu Kacper Twórz Stix Wojciech Chamielec grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko saiko Kacper Kucharski but have stayed at the top of the Polish scene amidst all the changes. Among their achievements, Awaria have won the BeChampions Tour - BeContender #2 tournament and won the PLE.GG Nations Circuit Season 2. They also placed third in the 12th Beloud Cup.
Anorthosis Famagusta, previously known as Dawn of Stars, are one of the most stable rosters in this selection. Since their inception, the Greek team has only swapped Christos "laggeR" Spanaktsoglou for Spiros "darz" Darsaklis. Anorthosis Famagusta have attended every European qualifier they could get their hands on, but haven't found much success, never going further than the top 32 in VCT tournaments. The team did end 2021 on a high note, winning the VALORANT LEGENDS Winter tournament.
Straight Outta Retirement are a recent mix of Czech talent. The roster has brought together players from eSuba eSuba Inactive Hitch Martin Srp patagod Patrik Bojkovský Cantzer Václav Jan Stezka , Team Sampi Team Sampi Inactive Ayyzicle MACHYY1 Daniel Machalíček Hasaa Radim Haša Ambi Štěpán Beránek Pjotr Petr Janiš Rias René Pitrun , and other teams. They played their first official on December 12 for VERSUS LEGENDS III, a tournament in which they failed to exit the group stage. Straight Outta Retirement have attended both 2022 VCT qualifiers, reaching the top 16 and top 64 after losses to KOI and Valorando, respectively.
The invited Hungarian roster are the fabled need more DM. This team was formed at the dawn of Valorant and were, for a large part of 2020, one of the European rosters on the verge of breakthrough, even attending several Ignition Series events. need more DM spent most of 2021 with HEET HEET Inactive Kinguyen Nguyen Thach memset Laurent Werly b2kk Sofian Delimi Monstrum Jake Byrne waddle Wadir Taraki , despite lackluster results. In spite of a constant VCT presence, their only tournament win last year was at the Magyar Esport Kupa #3 and they have reached the top 32 and top 16 in this year's VCT qualifiers.
The final invite is KTRL, a Romanian esports organization that is already present in several other esports, but currently lack a Valorant team.
The VRL East: Surge open qualifier is already underway and will draft its three best teams into the league. The qualifier will be played across the next couple of days, with the final squads only decided on January 28.
The VRL East: Surge team list is:
- AWARIA AWARIA Inactive YouBreak Piotr Chodoła Katu Kacper Twórz Stix Wojciech Chamielec grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko saiko Kacper Kucharski
- Anorthosis Famagusta Esports Anorthosis Famagusta Esports Inactive
- Straight Outta Retirement Straight Outta Retirement Inactive Pjotr Petr Janiš ROUSIK SH0UTyy Michal Glacner marteen Martin Pátek Hasaa Radim Haša
- need more DM need more DM Inactive Haxtrax Elek Simon szimpli Bence Soós crazyd33R Gábor Német Barcode Kevin Bana bzt Renátó Bárányos
- KTRL
- Qualified Team #1
- Qualified Team #2
- Qualified Team #3