Update (March 26th 2022): James Banks has stepped away from Alliance to focus on himself and his family and to reevaluate his future:
Original article (December 2020):
British esports host and commentator James Banks has joined Swedish organisation Alliance.
James has become the organisation’s new general manager for Valorant as it takes its first steps into Riot’s competitive shooter.
The news was announced a few days ago in the below video:
James Banks said: “I’m going to be the general manager for the Alliance Valorant team, and my goal here is to find and scout out the best players possible – not just in terms of performance, but I want something that we can build around, I want something that we can really work with and mould.
“Valorant right now is super exciting and now we have got to the point where the official Riot events have come out.
“You can see the future they’re trying to build around it and I want to make sure where they’re right at the beginning, with a team that can perform and really make a name for themselves.
“In a new game it takes a lot to succeed, I think you have to go in with a completely open mind – don’t be stuck in your ways.”
He added: “I want to see players that are hungry, motivated and want to push to be better. I think that’s so important especially in a new game and a team game, to really make the difference. And that’s what we want to do.”
James Banks has hosted many esports events over the years, and most recently has been working as a host for the Valorant First Strike Europe qualifiers, where Guild Esports were had an auto-loss due to a bug exploit.
Earlier this year, James made several claims towards fellow British host Paul Chaloner, which led to Paul quitting esports.
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.
