The renowned La Liga powerhouse’s move to VALORANT injects a breath of fresh air into the game’s tier-two landscape
SPAIN – FC Barcelona has officially announced its venture into the VALORANT scene, positioning the organization to participate in the upcoming 2024 season of the Spanish league, VALORANT Challengers Rising.
Widely recognized for its status as one of the world’s largest sports clubs, FC Barcelona joins the ranks of prominent football-associated entities venturing into VALORANT, following in the footsteps of names like Wolverhampton Wanderers FC with Wolves Esports, KRÜ Esports owned by Argentine superstars Sergio Agüero and Lionel Messi, Gerard Piqué-owned KOI, Casemiro’s Case Esports, and César Azpilicueta-owned Falcons, among others.
“With the participation of FC Barcelona in the VALORANT competition of LVP [Rising], we add a new team that will represent the club during 2024. The club continues to shape its commitment to esports by adding a team to the VALORANT competition, which, along with the one competing in League of Legends, falls within the desire to explore new opportunities and reach new audiences,” comments Juli Guiu, Vice President of FC Barcelona.
FC Barcelona is no stranger to the Riot Games ecosystem and esports as a whole, maintaining a presence in the regional League of Legends circuit known as the Spanish SuperLiga, which serves as a direct pathway to the EMEA Masters circuit. Furthermore, the Barcelona-based organization has been long involved in eFootball (PES) and previously managed a Rocket League roster for a three-year span from 2019 to 2022.
The venture into VALORANT is a component of the larger Barça Games initiative in collaboration with Mas Ros Media and FireSPORTS, recently announced in November to establish a stronger presence in the gaming and streaming world. The initiative is slated to launch in April 2024.
“The creation of the Barça Games platform is a reply to the Club’s wish to continue to be leading in terms of new opportunities and to aid the construction of the Digital Espai Barça, bringing together in a single digital community all those Barça fans we have around the world and strengthening their sense of belonging to FC Barcelona,” said Joan Laporta, the President of FC Barcelona.
The specifics regarding whether FC Barcelona, through its Barça eSports division, will form a VALORANT team from scratch or acquire an existing roster remain undisclosed at the time of publication. However former Case Esports head coach Lucas “LRojo” Rojo has reached a verbal agreement with Barça and will be taking the reins of the new team, as reported by Sheep Esports.
FC Barcelona’s venture into VALORANT brings a breath of fresh air, especially amid a significant number of organizations pulling out from the tier-two and tier-three levels of the game ahead of the 2024 season.
For more insights on the Asian VALORANT scene and upcoming content like this, be sure to like and follow VALO2ASIA on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
Cover photo courtesy of FC Barcelona
