ESPN will host VALORANT Invitational with teams from seven esports titles
ESPN Esports announced its own VALORANT Invitational tournament, featuring teams made up of players from other esports titles including League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite ane more.
The ESPN's VALORANT Invitational is set to begin on Monday, April 20, pitting professional esports players from various esports titles against each other to determine which esports best prepared its players with the needed skills to dominate in VALORANT. As revealed, there will be a total of eight teams from seven different game titles, including CS:GO, Fortnite, LoL, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex and Overwatch. Joining them will be VALORANT Developer team
Although this can hardly be considered as a serious tournament, we can be sure the competitive fire will be burning brighter than ever, seeing how the even is said to feature some big names from the esports scene. Having said that, it's obvious some players will enjoy a significant advantage over their competition, namely Counter-Strike players, considering their game has many elements similar to VALORANT.
Nonetheless, it seems like the field is fairly balanced, as it's hard to undervalue esports pros from other titles, given that they're all incredibly gifted esports athletes, who should do just fine in any game they are thrown into. Talking about teams to watch out for, we will also see VALORANT Devs, who are not to be overlooked, not only because they will most likely field the ex-CS:GO pro Salvatore “Volcano” Garozzo, but also because this team just recently defeated a team of prominent FPS streamers, which included ex-CS:GO pros Michael "shroud" Grzesiek, Jaryd "summit1g" Lazar, Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, Kyran "dizzy" Crombie and Erik "fl0m" Flom.
The event is set to take place over three days from April 20-22, starting on Monday at 2pm CT on the ESPN Esports Twitch Channel
As of Sunday, April 19, only three teams have unveiled their full rosters ahead of the ESPN Esports VALORANT Invitational. Those teams are: Team Rift (League of Legends), Team Mirage (CS:GO), Team Canyon (Apex)
Team Rift will see five League of Legends active and retired professional players including a few legendary names in Team Liquid's ADC Yiliang Peter "Doublelift" Peng, ex-Team SoloMid top laner Marcus "Dyrus" Hill, former Dignitas ADC Micheal "imaqtpie" Santana and his former teammate and mid laner Danny "Shiphtur" Le, as well as Immortals jungler Jake Kevin "Xmithie" Puchero.
Team Mirage will field five retired CS:GO players in Major winner Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert, Spencer "Hiko" Martin, as well as Braxton "swag" Pierce, Keven "AZK" Larivière, who are mostly known for their involvement in iBUYPOWER match-fixing scandal.
The last announced team, Team Canyon, will field five Apex Legends pros in Timothy "sYnceD" Putrow, NRG Esports member Brandon "Ace" Winn, former CS:GO player turned Apex Legends pro Kyran "dizzy" Crombie, Team Liquid member Lucas "Mendo" Håkansson and his teammate Justin "Kellar" Kellar.
Other five teams are said to be announced by Monday, on the official ESPN Esports' Twitter page.
Team Rift (League of Legends)
Yiliang Peter "Doublelift" Peng
Jake Kevin "Xmithie" Puchero
Danny "Shiphtur" Le
Micheal "imaqtpie" Santana
Marcus "Dyrus" Hill
Team Mirage (CS:GO)
Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham
Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert
Spencer "Hiko" Martin
Braxton "swag" Pierce
Keven "AZK" Larivière
Team Canyon (Apex)
Timothy "sYnceD" Putrow
Brandon "Ace" Winn
Kyran "dizzy" Crombie
Lucas "Mendo" Håkansson
Justin "Kellar" Kellar
