"Teams have come here just to practice and get the experience against us": TL eMIL on finding scrims in America ahead of Valorant Champions 2023 

Valorant Champions 2023, the final Riot Games-sponsored tournament of the year, kicks off on August 6, 2023. 16 teams from all over the world have been shortlisted for a chance to be declared the World Champions for 2023. Aside from the title, they are also competing for a massive $1,000,000 winner's share from the $2,250,000 prize pool.

Before Valorant Champions kicks off on August 6, Riot Games organized a pre-event press conference on August 5. It was attended by players and coaches from the participating teams. Over there, Sportskeeda Esports had the chance to ask coaches, NAVI's Erik "d00mbr0s" Sandgren and Team Liquid's Emil "eMIL" Sandgren, about their experience finding scrims in North America.

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NAVI's d00mbr0s and Team Liquid's eMIL weigh in on the scrims situation in Americas and EMEA ahead of Valorant Champions 2023

Pre-event press conference at Valorant Champions 2023 (Image via Riot Games)

For context, the Valorant community had recently been discussing the fate of tier-2 Valorant esports. This came after many organizations across the world disbanded their rosters ahead of the long off-season in 2023.

Things got really concerning in North America when big organizations like G2 Esports scrapped their roster consisting of Masters 2021 Reykjavík winners Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan and Michael "dapr" Gulino.

The scene was rife with speculations that there would not be enough squads for tier-1 teams to scrim against ahead of Valorant Champions 2023. When asked if they had difficulty in finding scrims ahead of the tournament, NAVI's coach said:

"No, so basically when you come to tournaments like this, you can scrim every team that is here except the ones in your group. That leaves us with 12 teams from the tournament itself. It has been pretty good."

He further elucidated that the problem was not restricted to North America, as things were usually just as dire in Europe as well. He added:

"The scrim situation back in EMEA has also been very bad. This is because there are no tier-2 tournaments going on, and not all franchise teams are active. We kind of have the same problems as they have here. However, every time there is an event, all the teams come together and they scrim each other. That is extremely beneficial."

Picking up after d00mbr0s, Team Liquid's coach, eMIL, added that the situation was better in North America than in Europe. In the latter, top players had made teams especially to practice against lineups coming to Valorant Champions 2023 from other regions. eMIL said:

"It has actually been better than I expected because everyone is willing to scrim each other unless you are in the same group, right? Also, among the tier-2 teams in America, some of them are creating teams just to play against all of us who have come here. All of these teams have come here just to practice and get the experience against us."

Fortunately, the problems anticipated by some members of the community did not come to pass, and teams have been able to practice well ahead of the most important tournament of the VCT season.

NAVI and Team Liquid will play the opening match in Valorant Champions 2023, which will kick off on August 6, 2023, at 12:00 pm PT / 9:00 pm CEST / 12:30 am IST (next day) / 4:00 am JST (next day).