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All Notable Free Agents in VALORANT

11:22 AM September 30, 2022
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With the advent of the new VCT format and the recent news regarding franchised teams, the current VALORANT pro scene is in a massive frenzy right now.

With many teams releasing their rosters as they failed to get a franchise spot, and as well as many unsigned players in the market, there are a lot of free agents, both unrestricted and not, that are ripe for the taking.

So which names are available this off-season? Here’s a quick (and extensive) rundown of who’s available:

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Oceania

Unbeknownst to many, Oceania has a pretty good pool of untapped potential. Given the region’s geographic disadvantage, we’ve only barely seen the talent the region boasts as their international presence was only limited to a few VCT appearances. Nevertheless, they’ve made APAC teams tremble not only in scrims but as well as, most prominently, in APAC LCQ. Leading the pack are two teams: ORDER and BOBO.

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ORDER

Screenshot taken from the VCT APAC LCQ 2022

  • Michael “WRONSKI” Wronski
  • Riley “rDeeW” Wilkinson
  • Matthew “Texta” O’Rourke
  • Cameron “disk0” Mac
  • Elvin “Maple” Sun
  • Oliver “DickStacy” Tierney (Coach)

Led by their own star duelist in WRONSKI, the Australian-based team saw relative success internationally as they repped Oceania twice this year for the VCT APAC Stage 2 Challengers and LCQ respectively. Unfortunately, their first outing placed them in a group of death as they faced (and lost) to Paper Rex and BOOM Esports. Meanwhile, they finished their APAC LCQ run in 5th–6th place after falling to Team Secret 2-1.

With the whole Oceania not present in the Pacific League, the entire roster of ORDER broke up and had decided to look for opportunities to play for any franchised teams in any of the regional leagues next year.

BoBo

  • Dale “signed” Tang
  • Noah “Nozz” McClafferty
  • Nick “tixx” Quinn
  • Justin “skrawl” Lanzon
  • Nicholas “DRAGON” Aleksandrovsky
  • Senpai (Coach)

Meanwhile, BOBO (yes that is the team’s name) comes as the current second-best team from Oceania as they lost to ORDER at the Oceania Tour: Championship. As of this moment, they currently remain orgless despite their accolades, which also basically means their entire roster is up for grabs (may it be as a team or individually). Their world-class talent is exemplified by their IGL Signed as he recently qualified, alongside his collegiate team DNC Gamers, for the RedBull Clutch Campus world championship.

Asia Pacific

The Asia Pacific region needs no introduction as it has come so far from being a minor region to a powerhouse in VALORANT. With three major regions combined into one, Asia Pacific has lots of free agents floating around.

Team Secret

Via Riot Games

  • Kevin “dispenser” Te
  • Riley “Witz” Go

Considering they g0t accepted as a franchise team, you wouldn’t expect Team Secret to be part of this list right? Alas, both Dispenser and Witz found themselves to be restricted free agents just mere days after the franchise announcement.

Both players were part of the roster Team Secret signed when they left Bren. Moreover, Dispenser was part of the original roster that Bren signed when they started out in VALORANT, while Witz came after a successful trial period. With that said, both players were integral to Team Secret’s miracle run at to the playoffs at the first VALORANT Champions where they eventually finished in 5th–8th place.

Unfortunately for the two players, it seems like Team Secret is willing to restructure their roster without them after a disappointing 2022 season where they failed to qualify for any Masters and as well as this year’s Champions.

ONIC G

  • Cahya “Monyet” Nugraha
  • Hildegard “Shiro” Arnaldo
  • Michael “severiNe” Winata
  • Hagai Kristen “Lmemore” Yesyurun
  • Sheldon Andersen “NcSlasher” Chandra
  • Martin “Ewok” (Coach)

ONIC G, by APAC standards, is a really good team. They have regularly attended every VCT APAC Challenger this year and almost clinched a Champions 2022 appearance if it weren’t for their fellow Indonesian comrades in BOOM Esports beating them in the APAC LCQ Grand Finals.

Unfortunately, ONIC didn’t make it into the franchise list, and thus their players soon posted LFT (Looking For Team) posts of their own. Meanwhile, ONIC itself was a bit cryptic with the roster’s departure as they merely tweeted: “[It was] good while it lasted.”

BOOM Esports

Via Riot Games

  • Gary “blaZek1ng” Dastin
  • Saibani “fl1pzjder” Rahmad
  • David “Tehbotol” Monangin

Just after their first Champions run, BOOM Esports was snubbed a franchise spot which led to the trio of BlaZek1ng, Fl1pzjder, and Tehbotol opting out from the team as restricted free agents.

BOOM’s VCT run this year was nothing short of impressive. They were consistently performing well in VCT Indonesia and eventually took the APAC LCQ spot from their rivals ONIC G. In their Champions debut, they were subsequently eliminated by Japan’s ZETA DIVISION in the group stage but not before Tehbotol achieved the most kills in a single international VALORANT match with 38.

With BOOM failing to make it into the Pacific League, the trio of BlaZek1ng, Fl1pzjder, and Tehbotol are eager for a transfer to a franchised team that will leave Rizkie “BerserX” Kusuma alone in BOOM if their moves through.

BLEED

  • Max “maxie” Lönnström
  • Jacob “pyth” Mourujärvi
  • Lim You Xiang “lenne” Lionel
  • Jorell “Retla” Teo
  • Derrick “Deryeon” Yee

Spearheaded by their Swedish imports, everyone expected BLEED to become one of the top teams in APAC. And they sort of did.

Within their region in Malaysia and Singapore, they always came second to Paper Rex and were also consistently finishing in third place in VCT Stage Qualifiers. Despite their relative success, BLEED may have had other plans coming into the 2023 season and thus released the entire team this off-season.

Bren Esports

  • Eroll Jule “EJAY” Delfin
  • Zachary “BraiNfreeZe” Bajarias
  • Boggs “Symbol” Ramos
  • See Wey “Evo” Kang (Coach)

Bren Esports is a household name. From its first iteration of the team to its latest, Bren has been consistently part of the upper echelon of Filipino VALORANT.

Unfortunately for the esteemed organization, after the departure of the now-Team Secret roster, Bren never quite replicated their success and soon found themselves at a crossroads this off-season. Players’ contracts each expired and Bren ultimately decided to go on rebuild mode yet again. Moreover, Yousef Imad “Hotsauz” El-Yousef also decided to retire from competitive VALORANT, while the majority of the players were LFT-ing since August of this year.

As for the players themselves, besides Xavier “xavi8k” Juan (who is now a stand-in for W Streak Esports), the rest of the former-Bren roster is yet to be picked up by another organization.

Lionne

VIa Lionne Esports

  • Philip “Aryu” Vergara
  • Keith “FireSaiyajin” Madarang

Prior to its sudden disbandment, Lionne was touted as the next Visayan superteam as it featured early VCT mainstays with the duo of George “Georggyyy” Lachica and Aryu (formerly Action PH) and FireSaiyajin (formerly Zeal Esports). Alas, the team failed to take off and only managed to play together in a tournament once (a rather short run too at the BLEED Summer Open) prior to the organization’s folding.

With Georggyyy now in W Streak Esports, Aryu and FireSaiyajin are left without a team to call home and are still technically all available for pick-up.

On Sla2ers

Via VALORANT Esports

  • Kim “GodDead” Sung-sin
  • Kim “zunba” Joon-hyuk
  • Lee “k1Ng” Seung-won
  • Park “Bazzi” Jun-ki
  • Yu “TS” Tae-seok
  • Jeong “Jaemin” Jae-min (Head coach)
  • Jung “peri” Bum-gi (Coach)

Outside South Korea, no one might’ve paid attention to On Sla2ers but they are definitely one of the best rosters in their region.

Formerly known as ESports Connected, On Sla2ers managed to clinch playoff berths consistently in VCT Korea – losing the Stage 1 grand final against DRX and falling off early at the Stage 2 playoffs against World Game Star in the first round of the lower bracket. They also had a magnificent run at the East Asia LCQ where they eventually met and lost against EDward Gaming in the grand finals.

With their failure to secure a franchise slot at the Pacific League, On Sla2ers decided to disband which left the players LFT-ing as their contractual obligations near their end.

Given the enormity of the Pacific League, here’s a brief list of other noteworthy free agencies:

  • REJECT – An “Medusa” Min-cheol, Kang “iNTRO” Seung-gyun (강승균), Koyori (Coach)
  • Maru Gaming – Kim “WIX” Doo-heon (김두헌)
  • NORTHEPTION – Kim “Meteor” Tae-O (김태오), Lee “bail” Sung-jae (이성재) (Coach)
  • FULL SENSE – Kititkawin “PTC” Rattanasukol
  • CERBERUS Esports – Ngô Trường “Kishi” Huy
  • Sengoku Gaming – Vici, Ilya “something” Petrov
  • TNL Esports – Um “SeliG” Hyun-sung (엄현성)
  • FENNEL – Kim “JinboongE” Jin-won (김진원)

EMEA

EMEA has always been a top region in FPS games, including VALORANT. In fact, the region produced the first-ever VALORANT Champions with Acend winning Champions 2021. With many teams failing to get into the franchise league, EMEA is swamped with restricted free agents waiting to be bought out.

Acend

  • Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt
  • Mehmet Yağız “cNed” İpek
  • Vakaris “vakk” Bebravičius
  • Travis “L1NK” Mendoza
  • Patryk “starxo” Kopczyński
  • Ondřej “MONSTEERR” Petrů

2022 has been rough for the young esports organization Acend. After winning Champions 2021, their VCT 2022 season results were quite less than stellar for a Champions winner, to say the least. Moreover, their Champions-winning roster did not remain intact as Vlad “Kiles” Shvets (who now plays for Giants Gaming) and Santeri “BONECOLD” Sassi (now playing for Team Vitality) both departed from the team earlier this year.

With Acend missing out on the EMEA franchise league, Zeek became the third player behind Kiles and BONECOLD to leave the team and is now currently a free agent. Meanwhile, the rest of the Acend roster are now restricted free agents and are free to entertain other offers from other teams.

M3 Champions

  • Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin
  • Bogdan “sheydos” Naumov
  • Igor “Redgar” Vlasov
  • Yaroslav “Jady” Nikolaev
  • Semyon “purp0” Borchev
  • Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov
  • Andrey “ENGH” Sholokhov (Head Coach)
  • Denis “Gray” Daniljuk (Coach)
  • Vladimir “Kayos” Ivanov (Manager)

Just like Acend, M3 Champions (formerly the Gambit Esports roster) fell hard this year (although not quite as hard). As a Champions 2021 grand finalist, many put high expectations on the team. Unfortunately, despite making it into the playoffs of the EMEA Challengers multiple times, M3 just can’t make it out of the playoffs and thus failed to make any LAN  appearance this year.

Unsurprisingly, M3 Champions failed to secure a franchise slot for the EMEA league which caused the team’s tenure to come to an end.

FNATIC

  • Enzo “Enzo” Mestari
  • James “Mistic” Orfila

In a similar situation with Team Secret, FNATIC is a partnered organization for the upcoming 2023 season for the EMEA League. And just like Dispenser and Witz from Team Secret, both players were allowed by FNATIC to look for other offers, with both players keen on making it into another franchised organization.

Considering both players’ last tenure at FNATIC ended up in 5th–6th place at Champions 2022, we’re guessing Enzo and Mistic’s respective buyouts as restricted free agents aren’t cheap.

G2 Esports

  • Auni “AvovA” Chahade
  • Oscar “mixwell” Cañellas Colocho
  • Aaro “hoody” Peltokangas
  • Johan “Meddo” Renbjörk Lundborg
  • Žygimantas “nukkye” Chmieliauskas

Given the recent controversy surrounding the organization, it’s no wonder why G2 got denied a franchise spot at the EMEA league. In line with that, G2 has allowed its players to look for a new home.

Despite that, G2  has had a pretty good year, which is highlighted by their lone Masters appearance this year in Master Reykjavik 2022 where they ended up in 5th–6th place after suffering a defeat at the hands of Paper Rex.

OG LDN UTD

  • Tautvydas “hype” Paldavicius
  • Lukas “feqew” Petrauskas
  • Michał “MOLSI” Łącki
  • Tomas “Destrian” Linikas
  • Ričardas “Boo” Lukaševičius

The squad from Lithuania may not be internationally known like most of the teams on this list but they did make it into the VCT EMEA LCQ this year (which warranted them a mention at least).

Just like every team who failed to get a franchise slot, the OG x LDN UTD team has allowed its players to look for other offers (with all of them eager to land on a franchised team).

Natus Vincere

  • Nikolai “zeddy” Lapko
  • Denis “dinkzj” Tkachev
  • Mikhail “Duno” Fokin
  • Kirill “Cloud” Nehozhin
  • Artur “7ssk7” Kurshin

For Natus Vincere (NAVI), you’d think they would keep their roster intact as they made it into the EMEA franchise league. However, NAVI obliterated their roster starting with the releases of Zeddy, Dinkzj, and Duno which was then followed by the LFT posts by the remaining two players Cloud and 7ssk7.

With so many free agents around, NAVI might just find the perfect new roster for next season. Cough, FPX, cough.

Americas

With North America and LATAM joining together to become the American League, the Americas have the top talent in all of VALORANT right now. Within their region, tons of free agents are available right now especially considering some top teams who all missed out on the franchising.

OpTic Gaming

Via Riot Games

  • Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen
  • Pujan “FNS” Mehta
  • Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker
  • Victor “Victor” Wong
  • Austin “crashies” Roberts
  • Chet “Chet” Singh (Coach)

By far the biggest names in free agency this season, North America’s concurrent best team is currently available in the market. With their failure to secure a franchise slot, most of the team opted out of OpTic in favor of free agency in the hopes of getting picked up by a franchised organization.

Both Victor and Crashies are unrestricted free agents while the rest of the team was allowed to look for other offers. Meanwhile Yay, arguably the best player in the world of VALORANT, has been a hot commodity as of late as rumors around him have sprawled out uncontrollably (with none of them confirmed as of this article’s writing).

The Guard

Via Riot Games

  • Ha “Sayaplayer” Jung-woo
  • Jonah “JonahP” Pulice
  • Michael “neT” Bernet
  • Jacob “valyn” Batio
  • Harrison “psalm” Chang
  • Matthew “mCe” Elmore (Coach)

The Guard is yet another great team that was denied a franchise slot.

Having won the VCT NA Stage 1 qualifiers against OpTic, The Guard made it into Masters Reykjavik 2022 and ended in a respectable 7th–8th place after getting booted out by Paper Rex in the lower bracket of the playoffs. After that, they then stumbled in the group stages of VCT NA Stage 2 but had enough points to qualify in the LCQ. Unfortunately, The Guard was dominated by 100Thieves as they got swept in the grand finals 0-3.

Without a franchise spot, all of The Guard’s players (save for Trent “trent” Cairns) are currently free agents looking for other offers.

XSET

Via Riot Games

  • Jordan “AYRIN” He
  • Brendan “BcJ” Jensen
  • Zachary “zekken” Patrone
  • Rory “dephh” Jackson

Another great roster forced into free agency, all of XSET’s players became free agents as the organization failed to get a franchise spot and had decided to set its players free.

XSET was one of the top teams in North America as they graced Masters Copenhagen 2022 and Champions 2022 respectively. One of the few teams to have beaten OpTic (in  VCT NA Stage 2 Grand Finals no less), they were one of the crowd favorites in both of their LAN appearances but were ultimately unsuccessful in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, an article from the Washington Post revealed that G2 had a “strong interest” in XSET’s lineup and coaching staff in case their NA organization failed to secure a franchise spot. Unfortunately, given G2’s recent bad light, the deal didn’t push through as neither team got a franchise. This was then supported by a tweet by Zekken as he apparently explained to his mom how the infamous misogynist Andre Tate “[cost] him a job”.

With XSET’s players still available (save for Matthew “Cryocells” Panganiban who recently joined 100 Thieves), there’s an abundance of unconfirmed rumors and reports regarding teams possibly signing certain players which means they won’t be free agents for long.

TSM

  • Daniel “Rossy” Abedrabbo
  • Corey “corey” Nigra
  • Preston “Juv3nile” Dornon (Head Coach)

Despite their popularity as a team, TSM failed to secure a spot in the American franchise league. With no franchise spot, TSM’s future seems bleak just like their overall performance this year.

With that said, both Rossy and Corey have decided to look for greener pastures, preferably with a VCT franchisee, while their former head coach Juv3nile is open to any position for a ‘top tier team’.

Ninjas In Pyjamas

  • Gabriel “v1xen” Martins
  • Cauan “cauanzin” Pereira
  • Gabriel Luiz “bezn1” da Costa
  • Walney “Jonn” Reis
  • Alexandre “xand” Zizi

As revealed by the organization’s COO, Ninjas In Pyjamas (NIP) has allowed all of its players to look for other options in light of the organization’s failure to secure a franchise spot.

As one of the top teams in LATAM, NIP managed to book a ticket for this year’s first Masters tournament in Reykjavik. In there, they managed to sweep and take down FNATIC in the group stages before subsequently losing at the hands of DRX and ZETA DIVISION.

Cloud9

  • Mitch “mitch” Semago
  • Rahul “curry” Nemani

After their brief hiatus last year, Cloud9 had a resurgence in 2022, having reached the lower bracket finals of VCT NA Stage 1 and earning enough points to participate and finish in fourth place at the NA LCQ.

With Cloud9 part of the franchise list, Cloud9 is keen on tinkering with its roster and thus allowed Mitch and Curry to become restricted free agents.

Other Notable Free Agents

Keznit

Via Riot Games

KRÜ’s Angelo “keznit” Mori became a recent free agent as his contract with the team expired shortly after their Champions 2022 run.

KRÜ, being a team that has made it to every VALORANT Masters and Champions to date, picked up the Chilean duelist to boost their power back in June of last year. As a member of that powerhouse team, Keznit’s versatility as a duelist and initiator roles made him an integral cog within KRÜ.

Steel

With T1 moving back to its South Korean roots in the Pacific League, Joshua “steel” Nissan had no choice but to declare a restricted free agency as he wanted to remain in the American VALORANT sphere.

WARDELL

One of the early superstars in North American VALORANT, everyone seems to forget that Matthew “WARDELL” Yu is still a free agent. After leaving TSM and a brief stint as a Version 1 stand-in, WARDELL has been busy with his usual streaming and guest appearances at conventions.

Sinatraa

The controversial and original superstar for Sentinel, Jay “sinatraa” Won still remains benched after his alleged sexual harassment issue came to light. He has tried LFT-ing to no avail which left him to focus on his content creation (while also getting buffed in real life).

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