Guild Esports has announced its entry into Valorant, a competitive 5v5 multiplayer tactical first-person shooter, with the signing of a top-flight roster of professional players who will compete in the upcoming First Strike tournament, Riot Games’ debut esports tournament for Valorant.
Guild’s Valorant team has been acquired from the top-ranked Swedish team Bonk, one of Europe’s most successful Valorant teams. The team was carefully chosen following a rigorous selection process and is comprised of five sought-after players: Yacine Laghmari ‘Yacine’, Malkolm Rench ‘bonkar’, Leo Janneson ‘Leo’, William Sundin ‘draken’, and Filip Gauffin ‘Goffe’. The team’s inaugural competition under the Guild banner will take place at the start of First Strike in early November.
The team has already achieved success, finishing in the top two in the recent Ignition Series and Mandatory.gg Cup tournaments and the players are excited to take the next step and emerge as champions under Guild.
- Yacine is a top-tier former CS:GO player who has made waves early on in his Valorant career.
- bonkar was Sweden’s first professional Valorant player. He is a former Paladins professional player and has won two Paladins World Championships. He is regarded as one of the best players in the game and is known for producing impressive results.
- Leo, aged 16 is a talented emerging player known as “The Young Gun”. He has achieved professional success at a young age.
- draken is a tier-one former CS:GO professional player and well known star player with a significant following.
- Goffe is a former top CS:GO professional player and Valorant amateur who is widely regarded as an industry “one-to-watch” and is now ready to compete at a professional level.
The finalised Valorant roster marks Guild’s first step into hardcore PC-based esports, following its launch into the cross-platform Rocket League and EA Sports FIFA titles earlier this year.
Guild is developing a talent pipeline in the UK based on the traditional academy model which will see the most able players such as Valorant amateurs scouted by Guild’s talent scout network and coached by industry leaders in order to attain the skillset required to win and take their careers to the next level.
Valorant is a fast-growing esports title published by Riot Games, the renowned developer behind League of Legends. Valorant is followed by a large audience with recent tournaments reported to have recorded over one million viewers.
Carleton Curtis, Executive Chairman at Guild, commented:
“Joining the Valorant community is a perfect step for Guild and we are delighted to expand into the new exciting and emerging esports space. Valorant is destined to become a major esport with global reach and deep fan bases and it benefits from the prestige of being developed by best-in-class publisher Riot Games. With these signings, Guild has established itself as a multi-disciplinary esports business and we are looking forward to fielding rosters in new games as we continue to scale and invest in our business utilising the war chest we raised in our IPO.
Valorant is an exciting esport and since its launch this year has already made a big impact on the competitive gaming ecosystem, winning over top pros from established games like Overwatch. We have high ambitions for our top-calibre team in the upcoming First Strike tournament. We are proud to welcome the players to our Guild family where we will coach and support them to become world champions.”
Yacine Laghmari ‘Yacine’, Professional Valorant Player at Guild, commented:
“Valorant is one of the most dynamic esports out there and being in Guild’s first Valorant roster is an exciting opportunity. I’m looking forward to playing my part in the future of Guild and the team.
Guild is an organisation with big ambition that is on a path to achieve great things and I’m proud to be a part of that. I’ve always been an ambitious player and want to create a legacy that will last.
Our team has already proved itself at a top level and now the goal is to become world champions.”
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