Despite losing organizational backing, Sabyasachi “Antidote” Bose and company have chosen to stick together and will compete under a temporary tag as they prepare for the upcoming APAC Predator League event.
INDIA – Orangutan and their VALORANT roster have gone their separate ways, the Mumbai-based organization has announced.
The move comes at a time in which they have been consistently harvesting good results all year. However, VALO2ASIA has learned that the players including newer recent members Rafi “frostmind” Diandra and Karan “Excali” Mhaswadkar intend to stick together while they search for organizational backing as a team package in hopes of remaining a top contender in South Asia.
It marks the end of the lineup’s 10 months since coming into existence in January when the quartet in Sabyasachi “Antidote” Bose, Akram “Rawfiul” Virani, Jon Michael “Tesseract” Piga, and Rishi “RvK” Vijayakumar were acquired from Enigma Gaming. The addition of Azis “azys” Nandang propelled the team to new heights as they went on to win both VCL South Asia Split 1 and 2 as well as qualification for VCT Ascension Pacific in Thailand.
Following the end of their VCT season, the exit of Tesseract and RvK saw Frostmind and Excali filling the vacant roster spots. Despite these changes, the team continued to dominate the domestic South Asian scene with victories in EMG Pro Series South Asia, TEC Challenger Series 10, and Predator League India.
These strong showings in the official VCT SA circuit, combined with a number of other deep runs in OFF//SEASON tournaments, solidified the roster as the undisputed heavy contenders heading into the new year.
Jai Shah, Co-Founder of Orangutan, explained in a Twitter post that various factors in the PC esports environment, including high player salaries, a shortage of LAN events, and dwindling viewership numbers, influenced the decision to release South Asia’s top VALORANT squad.
“At the end of the day, we had to take a business decision and not an emotional one. We really hope the market corrects itself and publishers and tournament organizers find a way to make the ecosystem more sustainable for organizations.”
His statement went on to say that Orangutan’s return to the scene is still on the table. “We will try our best to do everything we can to come back to VALORANT. It’s a pause for us, not a full stop.”
The following players are no longer a part of Orangutan:
- 🇮🇳 Akram “Rawfiul” Virani
- 🇮🇳 Sabyasachi “Antidote” Bose
- 🇵🇭 Azis “azys” Nandang
- 🇮🇩 Rafi “frostmind” Diandra
- 🇮🇳 Karan “Excali” Mhaswadkar
- 🇸🇬 Felipe “skyeSG” Lim (Coach)
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 TEC
