The UK has produced a host of top Valorant talent over the past year, and their strong representation in Valorant esports is continuing with the latest tournament.
The Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2021 Europe Stage 3 Challengers 2 teams have been confirmed, and the majority of the players taking part in this tournament are from the UK (30%), according to Liquipedia. Four teams feature UK talent, with a fifth also having a UK coach.
The next most-represented countries are France (with 20% of players) and Finland (10%).
Global orgs Fnatic and Team Liquid feature UK talent, while UK orgs Rix.GG and Tenstar have also qualified for Stage 3 Challengers 2.
European org Alliance also features British general manager James Banks, who joined Alliance last December and also works as a caster and host.
Speaking of broadcast talent, UK host Yinsu Collins was excited by the amount of UK representation in the tournament:
In terms of specific UK talent, Fnatic includes Boaster and Mistic, plus coach mini, Liquid has Soulcas, Kryptix and L1NK, plus coach Sliggy and analyst Bacon9.
Rix.GG Thunder consists of otom, frei and Luzuh, plus coaches weber and laika, and Tenstar has almost an entire UK line-up, of Br0die, KRAY, Russ and Stanley, as well as coach Spin. Tenstar are a relatively new UK org that entered Valorant a few months back.
The UK also has coaches in other regions – for example North America has Immi on Version1, while Turkey has Tanizqh on SuperMassive Blaze and Salah is with FireFlux (thanks to laika for the intel)!
The eight teams taking part in EU Stage 3 Challengers 2 include Fnatic, Liquid, BDS and Rix, who came from Challengers 1, while Tenstar, Giants, Vitality and Alliance made it through a closed qualifier.
They will all be battling it out for a spot in the EU Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs, where the best teams will qualify for the Valorant Masters LAN in Berlin.
Earlier this month, Acend won Valorant VCT Europe Stage 3 Challengers 1, and back in May, Sentinels won the Stage 2 Masters LAN in Iceland, beating Fnatic in the final.
The Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2021 Europe Stage 3 Challengers 2 takes place from July 28th to August 1st 2021.
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.
