DarkZero leave VALORANT

Following its rejection from the VCT partnership, DarkZero has announced its departure from competitive Valorant, joining Complexity Gaming, NYFU, and Luminosity in the mass exodus.

On July 21, FaZe Clan’s coaching staff revealed on Twitter that their upcoming match versus DarkZero had been canceled because the team was disbanded. Today, the organization posted a tweet confirming the claims and announced its exclusion from competitive Valorant.

 

Although the organization has had tremendous success with other esports titles like Rainbow Six and Apex Legends, they struggled to find a breakthrough with Valorant. The organization entered VALORANT in 2021, acquiring the Kooky Koalas roster. In NA VCT Challengers Stage 3, the team lost a close match to XSET and could not reach the main event. Even after adding two new players to the roster, the team’s results remained the same in 2022 as they failed to advance from Stage 1 and Stage 2 qualifiers. The roster will carry on in the third season of the MEL Premiership despite DarkZero’s exit from Valorant under a free agent moniker.

DarkZero’s disbanded valorant roster 

Kyle “ScrewFace” Jensen

Adam “Ange” Milian

Justin “Trick” Sears

Anthony “ZexRow” Colandro

Taylor “Drone” Johnson

 

The organization also fields rosters across other esports titles like Apex Legends and Rainbow Six. While its lineup in Apex Legends has solidified itself as world champions after winning the Apex Legends Global Series: 2022 Championship, DarkZero’s Rainbow Siege roster has also enjoyed significant success in recent years and most recently won the Six Charlotte Major 2022 championship.

DarkZero joins the Mass Exodus 

As riot moves ahead with the transition to a franchised league, multiple esports teams have announced their departure from the professional Valorant. In response to the franchised league’s rejections, NYFU declared that they will be terminating their Valorant roster on June 21. The same day, Akrew announced that they would be temporarily leaving Valorant because they had failed to advance to the following round of Riot’s partnership program.

Complexity followed the lead and exited Valorant’s competitive scene after Riot Games declined their VCT partnership applications too. However, because the esports organization still fields an active female Valorant squad, Complexity, it isn’t entirely out of the Valorant tournament. GX3. SoaR and Luminosity are also among the team that departed VALORANT over the past months. 

The VCT partnership will guarantee the partnered team a permanent place in Valorant’s regional and worldwide leagues, but it will make the rejected teams more reliant on the amateur tier 2 scene, making them more vulnerable to the ongoing financial crisis.

Header: RiotGames