Mad Lions, the Spanish esports organisation owned by Overactive Media, have moved into Valorant with the signing of a roster featuring UK players.
Mad announced they brought on board the roster from UK esports organisation Tenstar in an extravagant announcement video featuring the players, confirming news first reported earlier this month by Dexerto’s Arran Spake.
The roster features:
- Br0die (UK, who previously told us that UK Valorant needs more leaders)
- KRAY (UK)
- polvi (Finland)
- xms (France)
- Doma (Croatia)
- Apyr (Netherlands, sub)
- Spin (UK, coach)
- BigTime (UK, analyst)
The announcement film is titled ‘Dolce Far Niente’ and is an idea produced by Álvaro Luzón and Sergio Miña.
The video was very well-received by the community, with some saying it’s one of the best team presentation videos they’ve seen.
The team will now be competing in the French Valorant Regional League: Révolution.
“Valorant has been in our sights since its launch back in 2020 and entering this ecosystem is an exciting milestone for us,” said Adam Adamou, chief strategy officer at Overactive Media.
“We have worked closely with Riot Games on the growth of the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) and we strongly believe that what they are building in Valorant will lead to an equally successful professional league system.
“Every game has its own unique community and by expanding into Valorant, we’re unlocking further opportunities for meaningful and authentic engagement, while building a team that can be competitive and win at the highest level.”
Tenstar bid farewell to their roster in a tweet and article detailing some of the team’s achievements.
Tenstar announced a UK esports path to pro initiative after winning the Valorant UK & Ireland Skirmish with their team last year.
They also came close to winning Northern Europe’s first Valorant Regional League, falling to Excel in the final.
In other related news, Tenstar announced an academy roster as part of the Tenstar partnership with Welsh college Coleg Sir Gar earlier this week.
The news comes as Riot announced 2023 esports plans for Valorant, including new franchise-like international leagues.
Last month, Adamo Gaming, the gaming content business with ties to Tenstar, suddenly laid off the majority of its staff amidst pay complaints.
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.
