The Triumph of F/A teams at Valorant NA Challengers
The Valorant NA Challengers will kick off this week. The top 12 teams in North America Challengers will take on each other in a round-robin format. With six invitees, six additional teams qualified for the tournament, with two of these six teams being F/A teams. If you don't know already, F/A teams do not represent an organisation. With these teams already locked in for the rest of the year, it'd be an excellent opportunity for organisations to sponsor the players. The two teams are Dark Ratio and Squirtle Squad, who recently rebranded to Turtle Troops.
Dark Ratio feat. Trick, Drone, Ange, Will, ZexRow:
Dark Ratio has been around in the NA VCT circuit since 2022. They have won multiple Tier 2 and Tier 3 tournaments. The current roster of the Dark Ratio features Drone ex-TSM member with ex-100 Thieves Will, Ange, Trick and ZexRow. Starting the Open Qualifiers, they cleared their Ro128 without dropping a map.
In the Ro32, they met The Nation in the second round and lost the game 0-2. In the Lower Bracket, they defeated 99 Strength, NSIC and Rat Attack to face The Nation again. The rematch had Dark Ratio barely winning their map pick in overtime. The Nation answered back, winning theirs to force a third map. In the final map, Dark Ratio came back from a four-round deficit in the first half to win the game 13-10 and qualify for the Valorant NA Challengers.
They were the last team to qualify from the Open Qualifiers. As per Rod "Slasher" Breslau, Dark Ratio has already been picked up by an Organisation. Slasher said this on the Wisemen podcast.
Turtle Troops (Squirtle Squad) feat. Governor, WeDid, Add3r, Okeanos and Harmful:
Featuring top names in the Valorant NA scene, Squirtle Squad was a strong contender going into the Open Qualifiers. Like other qualifier teams, Governer and co. made an easy task of thier Ro128 Open qualifiers fixtures. In the Open Qualifier Ro32, they lost to Disguised and The Ganaccis to get eliminated in the Open Qualifiers.
Getting a second chance in the LCQ, the Squirtle squad once again 2-0'd their fixtures. In the Ro32, Squirtle Squad defeated Team Reckaroo, Rat Attack and YFP gaming to face The Nation. After exchanging the maps, the Squirtle Squad averted a comeback from the Nation to win the fixture. They met OR Esports for qualification and defeated them 2-0 to secure the spots at the Valorant NA Challengers.
The team got into a pickle after the Squirtle Squad name had a copyright issue. Governer, team's IGL took to Twitter for a new team name.
Around the same time, Ludwig joined Moist Esports and became interested in getting into Valorant Esports. Many people replied to Governer's tweet tagging Ludwig and Moist Esports. It was speculated that Moist Esports and the Squirtle Squad were talking about the same. There has been no confirmation from any side except speculation about the situation. Before it, the team rebranded to Turtle Troops to avoid copyright issues.
Organisation can pick of one of these F/A teams, and it would be an excellent opportunity for the organisation to pick them up.
Credits: Knights Valorant/ Valorant Competitive