Valorant: Taking a closer look at T1’s official roster

For a game that is still in its beta stages, you would not expect major esports organisations to jump the gun and start building a roster on a relatively new IP.

But here we are, some odd seven weeks later, and not one, but three organisations already have complete Valorant rosters, ready to take on any major league competition.

T1, Sentinels, and Immortals are all big esports organisations who are sitting on a complete roster even before Valorant gets an official launch on the June 2.

T1 went a step further and signed up their first Valorant player even before the closed beta was released. The popularity that Riot Games’ latest IP has garnered is quite unprecedented and these organisations feel that this game is indeed going to have a bright future in esports.

The big names in T1 so far

T1 recently added Victor “Food” Wong to their ranks. He is a former CS: GO player and played for the team Swole Patrol.

With @food_cs on our team, winning is DEFINITELY on the menu.Please welcome the 4th member of the T1 Valorant roster! #T1WIN pic.twitter.com/Z7uxBFM8al

— T1 (@T1) May 12, 2020

However, his tenure on the team was short-lived as he stayed with them for just three months. Food had created a name for himself in eUnited and Team Singularity and though he didn’t gain much success on the competitive stage, we feel that his career in Valorant will be a different story altogether.

T1’s shining star, according to many critics, is going to be Braxton ”Brax” Pierce. Also known as Swag, he is the first-ever officially signed Valorant Pro who got chartered up by T1 even before the game got an official release.

I am no longer with Swole Patrol. I have decided to take a step back from competitive CS and although I may still stream CS in the future, my main goal is to await the release of Project A and put my ambitions of being the best in the world to fruition.

— T1 Brax (@brax1wnl) February 28, 2020

Swag, or Brax, was notorious for being one of the most talented players to have ever hit the CS: GO esports scene. However, his career was cut short when he got banned by Valve for five years after he and his teammates were involved in a match-fixing scandal.

Valorant opens up a new gateway for Swag to give his professional esports career another shot along with his former Swole Patrol teammate Food.

There are two more former CS: GO players in T1 as well: Keven “AZK” Larivière and Austin “Crashies” Roberts. The squad will be headed and coached by Daniel “fRoD” Montaner, who is a coach in Lazarus Esports and also a former member of Swole Patrol.