Complexity Gaming and Built By Gamers (BBG) are the two unlucky teams whose applications have been rejected. Both teams have competed in the Valorant scene since 2020.
Falling short in the application process has led both teams to make drastic decisions regarding their Valorant future. Via a statement, Complexity made the rejection public while also announcing that they will be exiting the Valorant scene.
“As many of you have heard, recently VALORANT Partnership Program applicants were notified if they would proceed to a further round or if their applications were rejected. Unfortunately, Complexity Gaming��s substantive and compelling application was not selected to proceed. We are saddened by this decision as our submission was robust, detailing our history of successes and innovation, as well as our vision for the future of Complexity within the new VALORANT ecosystem.
“As a result of this process, we have made the difficult decision to partially exit VALORANT for the time being. While we will discontinue our efforts in the VALORANT Champions Tour via our men��s VALORANT team, we will continue our journey with Complexity.GX3 in VALORANT Game Changers and other competitions.”
Although the team has pledged continued support for the women’s GX3 roster, the men’s players have automatically become free agents.
While Complexity have announced their exit from the scene, BBG are still looking to monitor developments before making a decision. Todd Searle, BBG’s CEO, made a video explaining where the organization stands and how they plan to move forward.
“We didn’t make it into the international league for Valorant. The odds were low. We were going up against a lot of great orgs (organizations).”
After explaining that they have a code of giving it their all regardless, he continued:
“They’d inform us that they will be giving us more information about the domestic league. BBG will analyze this information that Riot gives us to see if it’s viable to have a domestic league team. Regardless of the domestic league information, BBG does want to remain in the scene in some way.”
Although both teams are the latest to reveal the outcome of their partnership bid, they are not the first. Several other teams have made announcements in the past, with most exiting the scene.
DarkZero, NYFU, SoaR, Akrew, and Luminosity Gaming are some of the teams that have exited Valorant following news of their application being denied. Rise, who also had their bid rejected, is yet to make an official announcement on their exit even as they have transferred nearly their entire roster to other organizations.
Shopify Rebellion, who picked up Luminosity’s roster, have also not made it to the next round in the application process. However, they are preparing to compete in the NA Last Chance Qualifier and could make it to the 2022 World Champions.
There have been some good news in Valorant, asCloud9, TSM, and The Guard have made it to the next round. There, they will be required to share financial information before a final decision on their application is made.
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The roster change was made due to the unavoidable absence of one of the long-serving players on the team’s roster. Although the change is only temporary as Rawkus will only see the team through for the remainder of the VCT North America Stage Two.
Hunter “SicK” Mims has been announced to be going on an extended leave of absence in order to attend to some ongoing family issues. This will see the 23-year-old miss out on the remainder of the VCT Stage 2.
The esports organization took to their official Twitter page to break the news on Thursday. They also pledged to give him their full support in his time of difficulty.
“Hunter “SicK” Mims will be taking an extended leave of absence to attend to an ongoing family matter. SicK has our full support during this difficult time.”
In the same release on Twitter, Sentinels revealed that Rawkus will step in to fill his position for the rest of the Challengers. While some fans have been welcoming of the idea, some have questioned their decision to have Rawkus fill in.
“Coach Rawkus will fill in for the remainder of Challengers.”
Having had a rough season in the previous year, which saw them fail to make the playoffs at the Champions, Sentinels look to have a better outing this season, but some could argue their hopes are unreal with SicK out.
Sentinels earned a spot in the playoffs having finished the VCT North America Stage with a 3-2 record. Their entry to the VCT was facilitated by a direct invite to the group stage. Their Stage One campaign came to an end after suffering consistent defeats at the hands of The Guard and Version1.
With the franchise’s focus on Stage Two, they secured their first roster change in over a year. The change saw them bench founding member Jared “zombs” Gitlin and recruit Eric “Kanpki” Xu to take his place.
Despite the change, Sentinels lost two of their Stage Two open qualifier matches to FaZe Clan and Luminosity. The open qualifiers ran from April 29 to May 2. These losses were damaging to the team’s chances of qualifying for groups.
The second open qualifier which was held from May 6 – 9 was no different for the Sentinels. They suffered a loss to Akrew and were relegated to the lower bracket and they were expected to claim victory in five consecutive games. With five consecutive games won in the lower bracket, the team would be eligible to feature in the group stage.
They somehow pulled it through in a perfect run of 10-0 with the help of Rawkus as a coach. They are currently yet to win a game as they are 0-3 in the group stage. They suffered losses to top esports organizations, including OpTic, Evil Geniuses, and Luminosity.
With that record, Sentinels will need to win their remaining games to stand a chance to make it to the Valorant playoffs. Their remaining games are against FaZe Clan and Cloud9.
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