Lost Puppies (LP) are a Valorant-focused UK esports organisation formed in 2023 that are making an impact with their three rosters. Their main all-UK roster have just reached the Eclipse/North qualifier, while their LP Zen academy side have qualified for the next Valorant UK Circuit (VUKC) in 2025, and their LP Luna women’s team are gunning for Game Changers.
We caught up with Lost Puppies owner, George ‘porridge’ Hall, to find out more about the LP project, their history, and their future.
First up, let’s start with the recent achievements.
Lost Puppies won the Premier Invite tournament, and in doing so, have qualified for the Eclipse/North qualifier, a part of the official Valorant Challengers North/East circuit.
For those unfamiliar, ‘Premier’ is Valorant’s in-game tournament system, allowing players of all skill levels to compete, and ‘Invite’ is the top rung of the Premier ladder.
This team also recently finished second in the most recent VUKC to SheshMans, who will also be joining them in the North qualifier later this month (from March 12th 2025, according to Liquipedia).
Confusingly, Lost Puppies are listed as ‘Phantom Fury’ in this page, and that’s due to the roster previously being called Phantom Fury in Premier, when LP picked them up.
From what we understand, Riot doesn’t allow a team to change their name in Premier, hence LP’s team still being called Phantom Fury in Premier.
This main Lost Puppies roster is also changing, with Corsa moving to another Eclipse team, Wintxrr taking exams and moving to a sub position, and ZERO being dropped.
With the roster locks happening yesterday, LP’s main all-UK roster has changed slightly to the following:
Starting line-up:
- zelo
- ViiZiionZzz
- Hazza
- W1LL (acquired from Willy G Palace)
- Deq (acquired from Willy G Palace)
Subs:
- Wintxrr (dropped to sub due to exams)
- Kettle (promoted from LP Zen)
Staff:
- porridge (Manager & Coach)
- kitchen (Coach)
- Lendoth (Manager)
“This is the first fully UK roster i’ve seen that may have a genuine chance at VCL in the last two years. Most of these have played VCL or VCL promotion before. I have a great relationship with all of these boys and the talent we have on this roster genuinely should be in VCL.”
porridge, Lost Puppies
Newcomers W1LL and Deq have played in North/East before, giving the side some experience going into the Eclipse/North qualifier.
On the roster (ahead of the new changes) LP owner porridge told Esports News UK: “This is the first fully UK roster i’ve seen that may have a genuine chance at VCL in the last two years. Most of these have played VCL or VCL promotion before. I have a great relationship with all of these boys and the talent we have on this roster genuinely should be in VCL.”
The news comes a few months after it was announced that the Challengers North Polaris and Challengers East Surge would become a single Challengers North//East in 2025, a circuit that is the home for tier 2 talent in the regions, including those from the UK and Ireland.
LP Zen team reach Invite and VUKC
Another of Lost Puppies’ rosters have done well recently, with their academy LP Zen roster finishing as champions of Contender (which is essentially division 2 in the in-game Premier tournament ecosystem).
The roster even convincingly beating Godsent to qualify for the top in-game Invite division. This is the top in-game division which you need to be in to qualify for VCL qualifiers in the next split (Invite is what LP’s main team recently won).
The Zen team have also reached a Division 1 spot in the VUKC, which is due to take place later this year.
However, we’re told they have just joined Rey Esports, so will not be competing under the LP banner in the next VUKC season.
LP owner porridge says: “LP Zen is a project where we’re entirely focused on development. Our last LP team were going to compete in DACH, but I think 4/5 of those players are now on VCL rosters instead, so the idea was for LP Zen to be our UK representative with a core three of UK nationals, a Swede and a Lithuanian.
“As such, we’ve ended up with two teams (cleared by admins) competing in the VUKC this split: Lost Puppies and LP Zen.”
LP Luna Gamer Changers roster changes incoming, as players receive various contract offers
Lost Puppies’ other roster is LP Luna, which is focused on the women’s Game Changers circuit.
We’re told that LP need to now rebuild this roster, as several players received contracted offers from other organisations.
Here is the Luna roster as it was announced back in late January 2025:
Lost Puppies owner porridge says: “The inception of LP Luna consisted of GC players who are currently on teams playing main event GC (such as susbake and leeni), which further demonstrates our commitment to scouting and development.
“More recently we’ve acquired a roster through a phase of extensive open trials, where we’ve had over 100 applicants. This is not only a crazy amount for us but to have that many top GC players interested – with our requirement of Immortal 1 peak minimum or wealthy experience in at least Contenders T2 GC – was an amazing and somehow humbling realisation for me personally.
“I don’t quite think that scale of applicants was ever possible, and the demonstration of affinity towards LP over other orgs for some top players, was such a nice surprise for me.”
porridge added: “The first iteration of LP Luna was susbake, Koneko, leeni, selin, door and Addi – a UK core now majority are playing main event GC (susbake with SK – we gave her her debut in GC, and leeni with Fokus).
“The current roster is subject to change, however, due to the girls having some really good offers. leni, Imp, Mini, melloney and ye finished 5-2 in the latest GC event but missed out on qualification due to buchholz. The roster has a UK core of Imp, Mini and ye.”
Lost Puppies history, earlier rosters and shoutouts
Lost Puppies owner, George ‘porridge’ Hall, gave us a wealth of information about LP’s past and what makes them stand out.
Aside from his work with LP, porridge is also a brand ambassador for peripherals, fashion and content brand 9kings, and n admin/correspondent for Valolytics, and also runs multimedia organisation 7F (aka Seven Fold).
“Lost Puppies are a community org established in March 2023,” porridge told Esports News UK. “It was literally established a joke to begin with, because I got banned for two weeks in Valorant for calling my teammates lost puppies for following me around.
“The inaugural roster consisted of porridge, dipsy, ZERO, Staxify and stevenn, while the second roster (and my first time coaching was Waken, Waddles, ViiZiionZzz, RaCuZzi and symFoNy. We peaked at first with at the time literal ‘randoms’, as people would describe us, on a terribly set up ladder for 2023, Final Beacons.”
On the first LP Academy, porridge explained: “The core of this team just six months later won the Finnish league under wombat123 and competed in Eclipse for VCL promotion. These young Finnish kids developed tremendously with us. (tsaga, Keks u, y0DISH, cigik, klippA, ZeEvil). While we knew due to the rulings at the time they couldn’t compete in Beacons, it was purely to develop young talent.
“Every single one of these players – and the coach – went on to do great things after LP and surprised a lot of people with their results in officials and scrims.”
The third roster (stevenn, ZERO, Soon, misu, symFoNy) were led by GeT0veRiT, who was brought in to coach about four months in, as porridge went to coach the GC project (LP Luna).
“This is particularly important for me as this was our first and remains our only salaried individual on LP,” porridge said.
“Huge credit goes to Soon for this, but we managed to pay for Get0’s services over a course of 3-4 months while he was still awaiting 3-6 months of salary that wasn’t paid to him from Qlash (the Spanish/Italian org), so he was living off of savings. After my interview with him, I went back to the boys to see if between the six of us we could cover his salary, and huge credit goes to Soon for picking up the brunt of that. From the players we managed to cover a few months salary for him which just made sense given Get0’s conditions.
“He wasn’t a coach that wanted money, he was a coach that needed money and to help him out with that and the story that goes along with it is probably one of my proudest moments of LP. We narrowly missed out on Eclipse with this roster, losing in OT twice to K10, who ended up qualifying (13-7, 13-15, 15-17).”
The fourth roster was a DACH project, coached by SnowKone, featuring Amcar, kodeth, antsy, molecule and DaGG3r.
“This is probably our most successful roster,” porridge said. “It was short-lived due to 4/5 of these currently playing for VCL teams and SnowKone getting picked up to a VCL team as a coach too. This revived SnowKone’s career, who came to me with a frustration of opportunities, so we decided to build something with LP.
“I told SnowKone I’d find him the players to really showcase his talents as a coach, and I’m so happy he’s finally at the level he deserves. The players [from our fourth roster] are all absolutely phenomenal talents too. You will see at least one of these in VCT one day.”
porridge, Lost Puppies
“We’ve also given debuts to many players who are now currently playing VCL (most of which are UK talent with a few unknown talents from abroad which we’ve nurtured), but we have a historical focus in the scene of being great with both scouting and development, finding great talent and then developing them.”
ViiZiionZzz, WaddlesThePig, Amcar and Staxify, to name a few, are perfect examples of that.
porridge says LP also have a history with reviving careers.
“For players who have fallen out of favour or weren’t catered to properly, we’ve managed to give a second life to experienced players who were floundering in obscurity,” he said.
“Waken as a player and SnowKone, recently a VCL coach for Nom, are perfect examples of that.
“Fun fact: we’ve never finished below t16 at any event, whether that is on LAN or online since our inception in early 2023.”
LP attended Epic.LAN for the first time at Epic 42 in the summer of 2024. And Lost Puppies players have played at more recent Epic.LANs under SevenFold (second at Epic 44) and Team Colt (second at Epic 43).
The org also run LP Game Nights on their Twitter, casted by BonMe.
“BonMe is one of our content creators,” porridge said. “We’ve brought the community together to provide some quality games with quality production.”
“Also, another good example of someone who has been part of our community and I have earmarked for a role (and he’s done absolutely amazing with it) is Lendoth, who is our current GM, and madsismaulding, who is our current community manager.
“Lendoth has been part of LP for a while, whereas mads has just joined but Lendoth in particular is a great showcase of the talent and potential in people there is at a grassroots level.”
More on Lost Puppies’ background, LP Creators, and why they don’t have contracts
“We also have LP Creators, which is exactly what it says on the tin,” porridge continues. “I have a history in esports counting back to when i was 10 years old or something, so 16 years in esports and content. Back to the days of trickshotting, Call of Duty and competitive FPS games.
“LP Creators are content creators and streamers which are part of LP, and we try to assist in their growth and make them part of our community too.
“If i could, I would love to make even more teams in more regions or even in the same region, through my methods of scouting and experience with developing players in co-operation with other LP staff, strategic coaches, performance coaches, managers etc.
“There is such a wealth of talent out there which just needs to be given opportunity and just needs to be nurtured.
“In the UK specifically there are very, very few orgs that offer what we offer and have a commitment to our players with their best interests at heart, such as we do.
“We make a point of being a development hub, we do not offer predatory contracts to our players competing at a t3 level, in fact we do not contract them at all, we do everything via verbal agreement currently, since at this level there is an outrageous focus on having players contracted and to “own players” when they aren’t getting anything.
“A contract without pay at this level just seems silly to me, so we will never offer our players contracts unless they’re paid, and we oppose the countless predatory contracts that are offered all the time at this level of competition. It’s sad and it just doesn’t make sense for the players.”
porridge, Lost Puppies
“Alongside developing players, we have a focus on overall commitment to the esports sphere so we also offer opportunities in other roles where talented individuals can gain experience, whether that is with team management, coaching, analyst work, upper management positions and staff (usually community-focused).
“I’ve personally made tweets looking for individuals to start a discourse with, to find passionate people who just need some guidance and an opportunity to get started in esports. From there we get to know each other, go through an interview phase and I make a personal judgment on whether this person has the characteristics to be given an opportunity.
“It could be their work ethic, their personality, their insights or knowledge or just their sheer passion when it comes to esports. For me this is where LP is, it’s a community org that actually makes sense. We serve our community well, we have an extremely active Discord where we’ve harboured a committed community, we’ve grown from a silly team needing a name for a mix to an org that has a loyal community that everybody knows.
“You can see it in the ranked queues: “LP *insert name here*? do you play for Lost Puppies?” or “LP? do you know porridge?”
The future of Lost Puppies
“I’m getting older these days and what I’d really like when it is time for me to potentially depart the space, is for LP to have a legacy after i’m gone,” owner porridge explained.
“At 26 I’m seen as old in the esports and media space, I’m very aware of that. I’m no longer a young talent with promising prospects, whether that comes to management or content creation or in-game. I’ve always had a hard time caring about myself and always have a hyper focus on others (my ranked teammates know this too well).
“I feel I’m at the stage in my ‘career’, if you can call it that, where i just want to give people opportunities, teach, coach and have a stake in other people’s success. Nurturing young talent, whether that is on a developmental or performance level, or just as people. I have a degree in psychology and i care about people a lot, so perhaps this is the right path for me.
“I am so proud of what LP has done already and the trajectory we are on for the future, but more importantly i’m incredibly proud of the people who have benefitted from LP: the debuts we’ve given, the careers we’ve revived, the community we’ve cultivated and the family we’ve made.
“The first year of LP was very focused around LP and many people only knew who it was because of me. It was then that I decided I didn’t want this to be the case, and I wanted it to be an ‘us’ thing. Over the past few months I feel like we’re getting closer to that and I’m really happy with the forward trajectory LP is going in.
“We have some events planned in the future for our community, which is forever growing. 2025 is the year we really put a focus on grassroots esports and showcase the incredible talent within the LP community. I don’t just mean players, I mean the people, the personalities, the potential. The creative minds and the creative works they do.”
porridge, Lost Puppies
“There’s an incredible amount of uncapped potential and this year I really want to make an impact in esports with our people. We are also going to be hosting our first tournaments this year, starting with Valorant but branching out into a few select games.
“I also used to run a server called UK customs, which peaked at 1,500 active members. I am going to start something like that with LP in the coming months to bring back 10 mans and further integrate our community with what we are doing.
“We also plan to offer some programmes for people who will be chosen through an application process, who may be interested in esports management in late 2025, to get a taste whether that be temporarily or permanently on what it’s like and what it takes to run an org: opportunities, development and community. That’s our agenda. Join the litter, my fellow lost puppies.
“We do have other plans and partnerships too, but that is all I can unveil for now. As for the rest of you, I’ll just have to see over the course of this year.”
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.
