UK esports organisation Paragon have made a series of roster announcements as they turn one year old.
Paragon announce LoL UKEL team roster consisting of student esports champions
Paragon has picked up EXE.Machina for the UKEL Division 1 2024 spring split, where they will now play under the name of PRG.EXE.
EXE.Machina won the NSE Summer split last year, and most recently picked up first place in the UK & Ireland University Esports Winter Split.
EXE.Machina recently reached the UKEL 4 Nations Division 1 for 2024 along with Lionscreed.
Paragon will be supporting the team in UKEL Division 1 and said they are ‘excited to return to our roots of facilitating student talent again’.
The roster for the team is as follows:
- Top – Refresh27
- Jungle – Snepex
- Mid – EDEN
- ADC – Lasped
- Support – Timatopr
- Sub Support – Drippy Darren
Paragon CEO Marcus ‘TheMac’ said: “I’m really keen and excited to work with the EXE.Machina boys, they’re all incredibly talented people who’ve managed to carve a path with limited competitive knowledge and experience outside of student leagues.
“They have real talent and potential to run away with the whole split, and I think there’s only a couple teams that will be able to contest these guys when they’re practiced.”
TheMac, Paragon
“Even though we’ve had a complete roster change and we narrowly missed out last split on claiming a spot, it’s really exciting to see all the UK players from the old Paragon roster still competing in other UKEL Division 1 teams, with Kenji on Venomcrest and Broddie and Fruitycarrots on the newly promoted Nuclear Vikings. These are two teams with great staff and players that will help facilitate their play, and they’ll be really exciting competition for PRG.EXE.”
ADC Lasped commented on the difference between uni leagues and the next level: “I think the dynamics between the two leagues is where I see the most differences. Uni esports is a lot more laid-back and genuinely feels like you’re playing a flex game with friends.
“We’ve played one split of UKEL so far and almost every team has coaching staff, management, org-backing etc which makes it feel a lot more professional. All of these features are new to us so the opportunity to have access to these things is very exciting.
“In terms of expectations, our goal is to win the league and promote into NLC. I think we already have a strong roster to begin with and have a lot of room to grow. However, this is the first split that we are playing in this sort of environment so I expect there to be bumps along the way but this is all a part of the learning process. Anything other than a top 3 finish would be disappointing.”
Mid-laner Eden added: “We want to win the league. Uni teams have a wider range of skill within same team, whereas in the UKEL it’s more similar across a roster. UKEL teams have a more defined identity/style and more standard competitive champ pools.”
Paragon bring on board new open Valorant team hoping to win Epic41
The Paragon Valorant roster is comprised of previous Epic.LAN team ‘Sheep Enjoyers’, a group of Welsh underdogs itching to take home the next LAN trophy, with the addition of Petals, who was on Vexed.dev’s roster that took home the win at Epic 40.
The org said this team’s priority goal is ‘to show up, and take the trophy home next LAN’.
The roster is as follows:
- Petals (Captain)
- JakesTommo (IGL)
- Kettle
- Counter
- BarcK
- 2Percent (Sub)
Valorant team captain Petals said: “I’m super excited for Epic.LAN, honestly, I think it’ll be a benchmark for the team and give people watching a representation of our capabilities as a team. We’re definitely considered underdogs, but that fuels us and gives us motivation to improve as a team. We definitely plan on surprising people.
“After being in the team, for coming up to two months, I can say with confidence that the team and Paragon are incredibly respectful and warm to be around, with nothing but respect from organisation and players alike.”
On Valorant esports, Petals added: “As much as I know Riot are doing their best to create a viable esports scene for as many people as possible, the changes they have made with franchising have greatly improved the lives for a fair amount of players, but also ripped opportunities away from so many, especially with T2 and VCL leagues being definitely neglected by Riot. I just wish that there were more tournaments, be it for practice and for certain individuals and teams to prove themselves among the masses.”
Paragon CEO Marcus ‘TheMac’ said: “These guys have a real passion that I haven’t seen before from a team. Incredibly driven players that will have real long term growth together, watching the way they interact and continuously learn makes me really excited.”
Celeste Game Changers roster returns for 2024: ‘I’m really confident these absolute powerhouses will be able to qualify’
The Paragon Celeste Game Changers women’s team will be returning to compete in 2024, bringing with it top student talent including Sacra and Gab from ‘Zara and Kittens’ (who recently won the UK University Esports Women and Non Binary Valorant Winter 2023), as well as Blahaj, who was one of the highest ACS players in that tournament.
The Roster for the team is as follows:
- gaaAAB (IGL and captain)
- shimari
- Sacra
- Blahaj
- Happy
gaaAAB said: “I absolutely cannot wait for this upcoming GC. Even though it’s very soon and we won’t have an abundance of practice going into it, I am so incredibly happy with the roster Celeste has at the moment. It is the best team I have ever been in. Everyone is so talented individually and I have high hopes for us as a team going into this season.
“As for Paragon, it is the first org I have been in and I can confidently say that my expectations have been exceeded. Every single member of staff involved within the org is so welcoming and kind, and the owners genuinely care about everyone involved. They take all of your thoughts into consideration and it has been an honour going from meeting one of them, themac, on Valorant nearly four years ago and now being on one of his rosters.”
“I didn’t want to be one of those orgs that just ‘has a Game Changers team’ for the sake of having one. Not trying to throw shade but it feels like for a lot of organisations, their Game Changers team is a second thought, which is why I’m so invested in pushing the best roster we can and facilitating some of the best players in the North East region to take home a win.”
TheMac, Paragon
Paragon CEO Marcus ‘TheMac’ added: “I genuinely love working with everyone on the Game Changers roster. It initially started when Zara, of Zara and Kittens fame (you can also see our brief interview with Zara at the Chi Uni Invitational here – Dom) came to me at about the time I was looking to start the creation of my org, discussing how she wanted to compete and show up in Game Changers.
“I can honestly say that working alongside Zara has been so helpful and taught me so much that has changed the way I manage the League of Legends and the Open Valorant teams, and growing as a manager alongside her has been such a pleasure. I feel like consistently we’ve had strong rosters but have always come a bit short for a variety of external reasons each GC, but I think we cooked with this one. I’m really, REALLY confident that these absolute powerhouses will be able to qualify, seriously some of the best players in Game Changers right now. Additional fun fact, I met Gab in a Spike Rush game back when Killjoy released, so running into her again and having her be such an integral part of the team almost feels fated.
“I also didn’t want to be one of those orgs that just ‘has a Game Changers team’ for the sake of having one. Not trying to throw shade but it feels like for a lot of organisations, their Game Changers team is a second thought, which is why I’m so invested in pushing the best roster we can and facilitating some of the best players in the North East region to take home a win.
“Investing in women’s esports should have just as much effort poured into it as any other team you would pick up. I really hope that other orgs show up and prove me wrong this GC split.”
Further reading: Paragon host PRG Gauntlet Valorant Team Deathmatch in December 2023, with 182 players taking part
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.
