Matagi Snipers are proving that VALORANT is truly for all ages.
JAPAN – Age is just a number, and that perfectly sums up the Matagi Snipers – Japan’s and APAC’s first-ever senior VALORANT team.
The Matagi Snipers boast an average member age of 67, and the eldest among them is 75. In their first year in 2021, NHK reported 21 applicants, but only eight made the cut, with the current team member count being 16 according to their website. To be part of the team, team members must be 65 or older, while those aged 60 to 64 are classified as “junior players.”
Hailing from the Akita Prefecture, Matagi Snipers proudly call this region home where they look to making it “the most energetic prefecture in Japan.” The Akita Prefecture is anticipated to have the highest proportion of elderly residents across Japan, projected to reach 49.9% by 2050, as reported by The Japan News.
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Their goals also go beyond maintaining health and preventing dementia among the elderly, as Matagi Snipers aspire to be a team that is “respected by our grandchildren”, all the while building a community that bridges generations.
The Matagi Snipers have dabbled in different esports titles like Apex Legends and Fortnite. However, their recent focus on VALORANT has captured the Japanese community’s attention, particularly after clips of their gameplay were shared on Twitter.
In Project A, shooting matters. The first clip features NAGI, a 63-year-old junior member of Matagi Snipers who had an impressive play by securing a 1v1 clutch on the A site of Ascent. The round win came as she landed a headshot on the opponent positioned behind the generator, successfully defusing the bomb and securing the match point for the team.
Meanwhile, the second clip highlights the skills of 67-year-old mark25, who used Omen and deployed smoke multiple times to block specific areas of the map and employed paranoia to blind opponents on the other side of the wall, from garden to hell. Mark25 ended the round by killing the remaining player while at the same time protecting his teammate defusing the bomb on the A site of Haven. In addition, another clip of mark25 also shows him playing on Icebox, defending the site to seal the 13-3 victory.
The future holds the answer to whether they will eventually compete in the official VALORANT Challengers Japan circuit.
You can find Matagi Snipers on Twitter, Twitch, and YouTube.
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Cover photo courtesy of Matagi Snipers
