Valorant officially launched on June 2 and almost a week later the number of teams continues to grow. T1 announced they’ll have three rosters instead of one.
Riot’s new shooter attracted a lot of organizations even during its closed beta (which lasted a few months). Some of the biggest teams already started picking up players for their potential Valorant squad. Various examples include Cloud9, TSM, 100 Thieves and T1.
The latest trend in CS:GO’s competitive scene is to increase the number of players per team. Valorant’s pro scene is still not shaped out yet, but T1 are already taking it a step further. The South Korean organization announced that it’s planning to have not one but three rosters. One for each of the regions – South Korea, North America and one academy team. The news came from an exclusive ESPN interview with T1 CEO Joe Marsh.
.@JoeMar confirms on our @playVALORANT Launch Special that @T1 will run a South Korean VALORANT team and an NA academy team in addition to their existing main roster.Check out his conversation with @Arda live on Twitch now:https://t.co/tkRMYxQlY0 pic.twitter.com/6uNWonRCGU
— ESPN Esports (@ESPN_Esports) June 1, 2020
- READ MORE: Skadoodle completes the T1 Valorant roster
T1 completed their Valorant roster last week with the addition of Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham and we thought that’d be it. Judging by the fact that the squad consists of five American players and one Canadian the next roster to form up will be the Korean one.
In an interview with ESPN, T1 CEO, Joe Marsh commented:
Until Riot says you can only run one, obviously the Korean team will stay in their region, but we will run an academy roster too. We really want to invest into the entire ecosystem and team and jump from South Korea to NA. That’s why we went first, we wanted to make a splash.
So what’s the academy roster? It’s basically a training ground for new players which will eventually join the main squad. A lot of players are also switching games as numerous pros from Fortnite, Overwatch and CS:GO have chosen to continue their career in Valorant. There’s a question though, what’s gonna happen if Riot announces that organizations can only have one roster? Will the extra players get sold to other teams?
- READ MORE: Valorant gets review bombed on Metacritic
Whether Riot’s new title will truly be the CS:GO killer remains to be seen. Organizations all around the globe prefer to play it safe with rosters ready and waiting. There are still no news of any upcoming leagues or major tournaments for Valorant but so far the big teams don’t seem to care.
Stay tuned for more Valorant news and make sure to check out EarlyGame for more content.
