Tier-one VALORANT action returns this weekend with the TEN VALORANT Global Invitational, featuring DRX, EDG, T1, and C9.
SOUTH KOREA – The TEN VALORANT Global Invitational is set to begin on October 7-8 at the Busan Esports Arena in South Korea. DRX, EDward Gaming, T1, and Cloud9 are among the directly invited teams for the OFF//SEASON tournament, which will also mark a number of players’ debut matches with their new homes.
The tournament will begin at 1 PM SGT (UTC+8) with a single round-robin group stage, wherein each team will face every other team in a best-of-one matchup. Although Saturday’s results will not result in any team’s elimination, they will shape the seeding for Sunday’s elimination rounds. The highest-ranked team from this stage will earn a direct spot in the grand finals, set to be a best-of-three showdown.
The bottom two teams are set to go head-to-head in another best-of-one series. The winner of this matchup will challenge the second-ranked team in a best-of-three semi-final, with the victorious team advancing to the grand finals to face the top-seeded team.
(Photo courtesy of TEN_VALORANT)
(Photo courtesy of TEN_VALORANT)
The competition had previously plans laid out to feature teams from all four major VCT regions, living up to its ‘Global’ moniker with the inclusion of the EMEA region. However, as the event’s details unfolded, there seemed to have been a change in direction. The original plan to bring in a team from the EMEA region has been scrapped and instead, the tournament now has two representatives from the Pacific region based in South Korea: DRX and T1.
DRX are set to be the highest-ranked team at the OFF//SEASON event, having secured a respectable 5-6th place at the recent VALORANT Champions event in Los Angeles and a runners-up position in the VCT Pacific League. It is anticipated that the Korean powerhouse will preserve their 2023 season roster for the upcoming season but with minor adjustments. The final decision on the starting five, especially the choice between Jung “Foxy9” Jae-sung and Kim “Zest” Gi-seok, is still up in the air.
The newly revamped T1 roster with Lee “k1Ng” Seung-won, Ham “iZu” Woo-joo, and Kevin “xccurate” Susanto debuted last month in France at the KCX3 – Karmine Corp vs. The World showmatch event. Competing with the absence of xccurate, T1 secured a best-of-one victory against Karmine Corp on Bind, with Carpe taking the role of Duelist.
However, the participation of xccurate in the Seoul event remains unknown after he was unable to secure a Schengen visa for the aforementioned KCX3 event, all while being a recent addition to T1. The Indonesian player still needs a visa to enter South Korea, but there hasn’t been any update on this matter.
Cloud9 recently revealed their updated roster for the forthcoming season, retaining only Erick “Xeppaa” Bach and Jake “jakee” Anderson from their prior lineup, while welcoming back Anthony “vanity” Malaspina, who had departed in March. The former G2 Esports pair, Maxim “wippie” Shepelev and Francis “OXY” Hoang, have also been brought on board, setting the stage for a reunion between wippie and vanity, who were teammates under the Version1 banner in 2021.
Meanwhile, EDG will head to Korea following their impressive performance at VALORANT Champions Los Angeles, where they clinched a 5-6th place finish and push a new high for Chinese VALORANT. Moreover, this will be the first time that a team from China will be in attendance at an OFF//SEASON event in Asia. EDG only recently clinched the title at the regional China Evolution Series Act I event, flawlessly advancing to their grand finals win against Rare Atom.
The tournament will be broadcast live across various platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, and Douyu.
Watch the event on:
The team list for the TEN VALORANT Global Invitational looks as follows:
DRX are:
- 🇰🇷 Kim “stax” Gu-taek
- 🇰🇷 Yu “BuZz” Byung-chul
- 🇰🇷 Kim “MaKo” Myeong-kwan
- 🇰🇷 Jung “Foxy9” Jae-sung
- 🇰🇷 “Flashback” (from DRX Prospects)
- 🇰🇷 Kim “Zest” Gi-seok
- 🇰🇷 Goo “Rb” Sang-Min
- 🇰🇷 Pyeon “termi” Seon-ho (Head coach)
- 🇰🇷 Kim “glow” Min-soo (Coach)
- 🇰🇷 Kwon “Argency” Soon-woo (Coach)
T1 are:
- 🇰🇷 Son “xeta” Seon-ho
- 🇰🇷 Ha “Sayaplayer” Jung-woo
- 🇰🇷 Lee “Carpe” Jae-hyeok
- 🇰🇷 Lee “k1Ng” Seung-won
- 🇰🇷 Ham “iZu” Woo-joo
- 🇮🇩 Kevin “xccurate” Susanto
- 🇰🇷 Yoon “Autumn” Eu-teum (Head coach)
- 🇨🇦 Dakota “Stunner” MacLeod (Assistant coach)
EDward Gaming are:
- 🇨🇳 Haodong “Haodong” Guo (郭浩东)
- 🇨🇳 Wan “CHICHOO” Shunzhi (万顺治)
- 🇨🇳 Wang “nobody” Senxu (王森旭)
- 🇨🇳 Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang (郑永康)
- 🇨🇳 Zhang “Smoggy” Zhao (张钊)
- 🇨🇳 Tang “Muggle” Shijun (唐世骏)
- 🇹🇼 Lo “AfteR” Wen-hsin (羅文信) (Coach)
- 🇨🇳 Li “sword9” Wei (李卫) (Assistant coach)
Cloud9 are:
- 🇺🇸 Anthony “vanity” Malaspina
- 🇺🇸 Erick “Xeppaa” Bach
- 🇺🇸 Jake “jakee” Anderson
- 🇺🇸 Francis “OXY” Hoang
- 🇷🇺 Maxim “wippie” Shepelev
- 🇬🇧 Ian “Immi” Harding (Coach)
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Cover photo courtesy of VALORANT Esports China
