True Rippers round out the team list for the VALORANT Convergence 2023 event, set to take place on December 14–17 in Bangalore, India.
INDIA – True Rippers have topped the India Qualifier for VALORANT Convergence 2023 and become the sixth and final team to book a spot at the upcoming Bangalore event.
Philip “Aryu” Vergara’s troops achieved their victory even though they had to adapt to playing without head coach Francis “Rabbet” Buñag, who had recently left the team in late November.
On the other side of things, RGE had to utilize two stand-in players in the form of former Alter Ego player Adrian “adrnking” Setiawan and former Enigma Gaming and Velocity Gaming member Karan “Excali” Mhaswadkar following the departure of Aleksandr “hvoya” Eremin, who was considered one of the team’s best performers.
True Rippers kicked off their qualifier run with a comfortable victory over Vibhor “Vibhor” Vaid’s Grayfox Esports but were subsequently knocked down to the lower bracket after falling to Reckoning Esports in the Upper Final. However, the Indian-Filipino side fought back by securing another victory in their rematch against Grayfox Esports to set up a deciding match against Reckoning Esports in a best-of-five format.
Coming from the upper bracket, RGE entered the best-of-five matchup with a two-map ban advantage over TR, where they capitalized and won the first map on Lotus with a score of 13-9. However, that edge was swept away quickly as True Rippers secured a narrow win on their first map pick of Ascent 13-11 and got a more decisive 13-2 win on the following map of Bind.
With TR on the cusp of qualification, RGE tuned up their performance up a gear on Haven and wrapped up the map 13-9 off the back of numerous multi-kills from Ilya “Anq” Matyash and adrnking, pushing the series to a final map on Breeze.
Breeze ended up being a walk in the park for True Rippers, maintaining complete control throughout the first half and finishing their defensive play with a commanding 10-2 lead. A 2/2 pistol round win for TR extended their lead by one, but a timeout called by Thanadit “Rennyy” Sakunchan gave RGE some breathing room and a fighting chance on the map with four consecutive round wins that followed.
However, Nereus “d1srupt” Lico’s remarkable quad kills during an unexpected push to site B in Round 16 brought True Rippers tantalizingly close to victory as they reached match point. Although their opponents won two more rounds after that, the lead True Rippers had was too large for a complete turnaround, resulting in True Rippers sealing the deal.
The success of True Rippers sees them lock in their inaugural international appearance and first-ever trophy following three consecutive runners-up finishes in TEC Challenger Series 10, Predator League India, and The Arena Championship 2023. Sagnik ‘Hellff’ Roy expressed his excitement on Twitter after the qualification match, saying, “I’m super happy after qualifying for the Convergence event! Winning a big event after a long time and I can’t wait to make India proud on an international stage.”
Convergence 2023 will be massively beneficial for them as they are set to go head-to-head with five invited VCT partnered teams in Gen.G, Global Esports, FUT Esports, Team Vitality, and FURIA Esports ahead of the Challengers South Asia circuit next season.
The complete team list for Convergence 2023 looks as follows:
| 🇮🇳 Global Esports | 🇰🇷 Gen.G |
| 🇧🇷 FURIA Esports | 🇪🇺 Team Vitality |
| 🇹🇷 FUT Esports | 🇮🇳 True Rippers |
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Cover photo courtesy of VALORANT Esports SA
