New UK-based esports organisation Rix.GG have announced the signing of the Royals Valorant roster, featuring some of the UK’s best Valorant players.
They’ve been invited to play in this weekend’s Mandatory.gg Cup, which is part of the Riot Games-supported Ignition Series and includes a €15,000 prize pool, as well as other top European teams.
The roster consists of:
- Harry ‘DPS’ MacGill
- Jack ‘kpiz’ Pragnell
- Tautvydas ‘hype’ Paldavicius
- Brandon ‘weber’ Weber
- Russel ‘Russ’ Mendes
- Neil ‘Neilzinho’ Finlay (coach)
- Zack ‘cZer’ Chandler (manager)
All five of the players have previously found success in the UK CSGO scene and have now transitioned to Valorant. Four of the players and the coach and manager are British, while hype is Lithuanian.
The team is currently ranked 25th in the world and has won multiple events throughout the beta and full release of Valorant.
Rix.GG have been founded by Brit Jamie Lewis of marketing agency Rix Digital, with the goal of giving up and coming players a chance to compete full-time.
The org have also secured ‘significant’ investment through early funding rounds.
Rix.GG will also be looking to support the wider esports scene and support grassroots Valorant in the UK. For example, they’re the headline sponsor for this weekend’s UnifyOnline Valorant tournament.
“I created Rix.GG to give incredibly talented players a chance to reach the top, and I am excited to have found a British roster with bags of potential. I’m confident this team can compete at the very highest level of Valorant esports.”
Jamie Lewis, Rix.GG
“I created Rix.GG to give incredibly talented players a chance to reach the top, and I am excited to have found a British roster with bags of potential,” said Jamie Lewis, MD of Rix.GG.
“With the right support and a lot of hard work, I’m confident this team can compete at the very highest level of Valorant esports.”
“We’ll also be hosting our own tournaments in the very near future. While our goal is obviously to house the best rosters in the world, we believe that helping the wider scene grow is also very important.”
Team captain Jack ‘kpiz’ Pragnell added: “We are incredibly happy to join Rix.GG as the organisation’s first official team!”
“We felt it was a great opportunity to sign with Rix.GG at this time, they offered us great infrastructure and support for the entire team. They’ll supply us with a sense of stability during these times of development, which we believe is vital to our success.
“Together with the great support staff we hope to compete for the championships over the next few months, starting with the Mandatory Cup, as part of the Ignition Series.”
In the future Rix.GG will be looking to sign rosters in other games, continue to support grassroots competition and host tournaments, with the overall goal of supporting up and coming esports talent and taking them to the top level of competition.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
