Breath of Fresh Air: Oxygen Esports announces new Valorant Challengers roster, headlined by former C9 mitch
Oxygen Esports, a North American organization, looks to return to the upper tiers of competition after two years away from the region. The organization is signing a mixture of remnant players from other rosters, with the biggest signing arguably former Cloud9 player Mitch “mitch” Semago. Joining him is Logan “skuba” Jenkins, most notably of Knights, Josh “pwny” VanGorder, of T1, Devon “randyySAVAGE” Bréard, most notably of Renegades, and Andrew “Verno” Maust, called up from Oxygen Academy.
Academy player Yassin “Reduxx” Aboulalazm also joins the roster as a substitute for the new roster. Former TSM coach Preston “Juv3nile” Dornon joins as head coach. As reported, the organization will be looking to compete in the NA Valorant Challengers League in 2023. As with all Challengers teams competing, they are all eyeing Ascension as the end goal.
What is the Challengers League?
According to Riot, the Challengers League system is designed to encompass more than 20 leagues around the world, ‘ensuring every Valorant player has a path to realize their competitive dreams.’
Regions in play. Image Credit: Riot GamesThese leagues will ‘provide highly organized competitions,’ beginning with an open qualifier, following by a selection of the best teams based on performance in two splits of multi-week regular season play.
Challengers Split. Image credit: Riot GamesSeparate to that, 2023 will also include a new event series in each of the three main region: EMEA, AMERICAS, and PACIFIC, labelled Ascension tournaments. Winning such an event earns the organization a spot in the following year’s international league for two years.
Path to Ascension. Image credit: Riot Games
Late Entry for Oxygen
Having entered Valorant in 2020 with the signing of ‘Looking4org’, the roster competed in the Turkish scene, with their highest arguable peak 2nd placement at the VCT Turkey Stage 2 and 3 Challengers.
Having also fielded a Game Changers roster as well as an Academy team, Oxygen had access to talent, however, the level was not quite there yet. With the full roster rebuild now though, Oxygen looks poised to challenge some of the top Challenger teams. As it stands, there have been four other Challenger teams announced, that being: TSM, The Guard, G2, and M80.
Despite their Game Changers and main roster competing in the Turkish leagues, they did have their academy team competing in NA, most notably with “Verno,” “Reduxx,” and “Rustun,” the latter of which joins as assistant coach. Their academy team comprised of relatively unknown talent yet demonstrated solid potential to rise through the ranks. Taking the NSG Summer Championship twice, as well as a 3rd place finish at the MEL Valorant Premiership Season 3 playoffs, Oxygen had some notable talent in the wings.
Last Call for Mitch potentially
For “mitch,” this may be the last call to the top league for him. The 26-year-old now finds himself as the most experienced talent on a roster of rookies and younger talents. Having played for Cloud9 until recently, he placed 3rd at the VCT NA Challengers Stage 1 before falling in 4th place in the NA Last Chance Qualifier.
Oxygen's roster now looks as follows:
- Mitch “mitch” Semago
- Logan “skuba” Jenkins
- Josh “pwny” VanGorder
- Devon “randyySAVAGE” Bréard
- Andrew “Verno” Maust
- Yassin “Reduxx” Aboulalazm (substitute)
Image credit: Oxygen Esports