ZETA Division Valorant Roster Update: Crow transitions to coaching, XQQ and TENNN join content creation
ZETA Division, arguably the most successful Japanese Valorant team, has begun making changes to the roster in preparation for the VCT 2024 season. The team’s head coach Hibiki “XQQ” Motoyama and player Tenta “TENNN” Asai have transitioned to content creation. Tomoaki “Crow” Maruoka, the long time standing member of the team, has accepted a coaching position.
These changes come after a tumultuous VCT 2023 season where the roster struggled to secure a significant placement and missed out on VCT Masters Tokyo 2023.
The Legacy of ZETA Division:
The ZETA Division’s Valorant journey started with Absolute Jupiter composed of the former Absolute CS:GO squad featuring LAZ, Reita, Crow, barce, takej and Coach JUNiOR. The squad won the First Strike Japan.
They fell to Crazy Racoons in the VCT Masters 1 Japan 2021 and VCT Stage 2 Challengers Japan 2021 finals. The loss led to them missing out on the first International Valorant tournament.
They rebranded to the ZETA division ahead of VCT Stage 3 Challengers and attended their first international event in VCT Masters 3 Berlin 2021. Unfortunately, Keyd Stars eliminated them from the group stage itself.
Ahead of the 2022 season, the squad brought in TENNN and SugarZ3ro from Northeption and Dep from REJECT. The newly acquired talent helped them secure their first major international run.
At VCT Masters Reykjavik 2022, they defeated the Brazilian Ninjas in Pyjamas and EU’s Fnatic to secure playoffs. After losing to G2 Esports in the opening playoff game, ZETA went on an insane run defeating Team Liquid, DRX and Paper Rex to secure a third place finish at the tournament.
ZETA Division Valorant at VCT Masters Reykjavik 2022 (credits: Colin Young-Wolff // Riot Games)Unfortunately, that was the best placement for the ZETA Division in 2022. At Valorant Champions 2022, they had to play without TENNN and upset either LOUD or Optic, to make it out of the group stage. With a sub and the toughest groups of Valorant Champions 2022, ZETA tapped out in the group stage.
Read More: The Ultimate Japanese Division: Zeta Division Valorant announce their sixth member
VCT Pacific 2023 and ZETA Division:
The organization successfully secured the Riot partnership and participated in the VCT 2023.
At the inaugural LOCK//IN event, they lost to Leviatan. In the VCT Pacific league they placed 5th-6th after losing to T1 in the playoffs and thus missing Masters Tokyo.
They did qualify for Valorant Champions 2023 after winning the VCT Pacific LCQ 2023, but again were drafted in the same group as Fnatic, NRG and Bilibili Gaming.
The team lost to NRG in the elimination match and were eliminated from the group stage of Valorant Champions 2023.
Read More: “It’s sad to think the year is already over for us” ZETA LAZ following the Valorant Champions 2023 elimination
ZETA Division’s future:
With VCT 2024 in sight, the changes were imminent. Earlier today, ZETA Division Twitter announced the first set of changes to the roster.
TENNN and coach XQQ are off the roster and will be transitioning to content creation. Crow will transition to a coaching position in the roster.
The moves were later elaborated on “THE XQQ AND CROW SHOW” which premiered on ZETA Division’s YouTube Channel.
ZETA hasn't announced the replacement for the squad. But the changes definitely are a step in the right direction. The team has been struggling in terms of roles after the meta shifted from the Chamber meta in 2023.
They definitely looked much better at the Valorant Champions 2023 but were far from being a top International team.
It’d be interesting to see who ZETA brings to fulfill the vacant spots. Hopefully the additions bring stability to the team and help them rise the ranks in the Pacific.
Follow the Valorant roster updates on ZETA Division Twitter. You can also follow the VCT 2024 roster moves on Strafe.
Feature Image Credits: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games