OG LDN UTD have announced they have left Valorant esports after missing out on Riot Games’ Valorant International Leagues.
OG Esports and UK-based organisation LDN UTD first announced their partnership last May, which saw LDN UTD’s Valorant team rebranded to OG LDN UTD as they played in the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Challengers.
In September, LDN UTD were one of the esports orgs that missed out on 2023 Valorant International Leagues, along with fellow UK orgs Excel Esports and Guild Esports.
Now they’ve decided to pull the plug in Valorant.
A statement on the OG website read: “We applied to the [Riot Valorant] Partnership Program and successfully made it to an interview with Riot. Unfortunately, we were not one of the teams chosen in the end. Our next steps were to discuss internally about what the best step moving forward would be.
“After seeing our progress and potential, especially during the end of the season, it was our belief that any team would be lucky to have these players as part of their rosters. We would never deny them of such an opportunity, and so, we allowed them to explore their options and receive other teams’ offers.
“Once the [OG LDN UTD] team found their new homes, we regrouped and carefully evaluated our options, ultimately deciding to take a step away from the Valorant scene.”
OG LDN UTD also thanked their fans and players in the statement.
“We applied to the Partnership Program and successfully made it to an interview with Riot. Unfortunately, we were not one of the teams chosen in the end. Once the team found their new homes, we regrouped and carefully evaluated our options, ultimately deciding to take a step away from the Valorant scene.”
OG
The news comes after LDN UTD withdrew from the League of Legends NLC, and following a report in August by Gliscor for Blix that claimed LDN UTD were looking to leave Valorant and the competitive scene in general.
LDN UTD’s social channels have been a little quiet since the org announced new majority shareholders Ludus Gaming last November.
Esports News UK understands LDN UTD’s focus will continue to be on education and the community, with esports alongside that.
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.
