With a long-term plan for success, whole-hearted trust in their team, and some lucky, unexpected, and chance opportunities, RRQ have shown why patient team development can be the way forward to the front.
INDONESIA — Rex Regum Qeon, otherwise known as RRQ, is a team and organization that might not have initially been as well-known to most VALORANT fans at the start of the partnership era and the VCT Pacific League, as you’re gonna hear from themselves later, even they knew that; but after high-profile player pickups like Monyet and crazyguy, stellar performances from players like Jemkin, and a spot straight into the Masters Toronto playoffs as the #1 seed for Pacific, they’ve placed themselves in a position where fans can’t help but watch and wonder, what else can this team do?
To answer that, we sat down and talked with Jonathan Hoo, the head of VALORANT Operations for Team RRQ, to discuss topics such as roster pickups, their long term philosophy and investment into running a VALORANT team, and how they feel coming into Masters Toronto being the leading seed of the Pacific circuit, while also still being considered as underdogs in the tournament.
The Rise of RRQ
While RRQ as an organization is one of the largest and most well-known within Southeast Asia, even before the VCT due to their activity in various mobile titles back then, not much was known about the people behind the organization. The cogs within the well-oiled machine that is RRQ, and what they bring to the table for VALORANT were largely unknown to this vast new audience for them, as they weren’t nearly as present during the first formative years of the VCT pre-partnership era compared to now. But that has since changed, as they’ve become one of the premier organizations within the Pacific.
While I did give a brief introduction for our representative from RRQ earlier on, it might be best to hear it from him yourselves. So, who exactly is Jonathan Hoo?
Jonathan: “Hey, I’m Jonathan, or most people call me Jon. I’m currently the head of RRQ VALORANT. I’ve been in this role for about two and a half to three years. I’ve been at the holding company of RRQ for probably 12 years now. I think, yeah, heading into 12 years. I’ve been at Qeon (RRQ) for a while, but only started handling a team since the start of the partnership era.”
With Jonathan being part of RRQ’s VALORANT program at the start of the partnership era, we thought it’d be interesting to ask about what approach the organization had when pitching their partnership involvement in the Pacific circuit to Riot in the first place.
After all, while they did test the waters with a Filipino team before then, and even tried to convert their Point Blank team to VALORANT, at that period in time, RRQ still had yet to make a lasting name for themselves within the VALORANT landscape. Jonathan shares what probably helped them secure a spot, while acknowledging that they themselves were aware of the current position and the optics surrounding their team at the time:
Jonathan: “You know, we weren’t the established team. We weren’t.
BOOM and ONIC were already there. We tried to retool, converting some of our other PC title games like from Point Blank into the VALORANT team, but they couldn’t really adapt to the game. That is why we also moved to the Philippines and got Filipino players, and we kind of won something there through Cal’s (Calvin, RRQ Co-Founder) hard work as well.
But I think it was the size of our org that helped persuade Riot to choose us. I think we were a great partner to work with. Like I mentioned before, we’re all in when we are in a game, and if you give us a little time, when we believe in something, we truly invest in it, invest into the ecosystem, and especially into the fans and the fandom.
Even though, just to be frank, we didn’t really have a huge fanbase. It takes time to build. That building part has taken two and a half years, and I can still say that we don’t have the biggest fanbase, but I’m confident that given time and given our trajectory as a team, we will be able to gain more fans and have that fandom that is really important to the VALORANT community, to Riot, and to ourselves. At the end of the day, to be able to prove to the VALORANT community that actually, you know what, RRQ’s a pretty legit team, and they do it the right way. I think we’re building the team the right way. We’re investing in the ecosystem the right way.”
For RRQ, it seems that they felt like they had a lot to prove to everyone else, not just as a capable and effective team, but as an organization worthy of the prestigious partnership slot, as well as a pillar of the VALORANT ecosystem. In the end, through steady determination, they’ve earned that trust from the community, which admittedly Jonathan shares that there was some backlash from the fans early on:
Jonathan: “It has been a really long journey, especially for RRQ. We got this partnership opportunity through our achievements in other games, especially in the mobile scene, and I think that was something Riot thought would be good — to have an Indonesian representative with a huge fan base join the partnership era.
So I think we were very fortunate to have beaten out a lot of the other Indonesian orgs that were mainstays or had been in the VALORANT scene for a few years before we jumped into it. It has been very fortunate for us. It has also been a pretty difficult journey, especially with how we started and the backlash from the Indonesian fans when we first formed the team.
Over the past couple of years, it has been a struggle trying to find the right pieces, and we always kind of fell short of qualifying and achieving the goals we set out to reach. But it has been very rewarding. At the end, after two and a half years of going through different rosters and players, we finally achieved at least one of our milestones as an organization.
And to win something, right? Let alone qualify for an international event, to actually win something significant like a Stage 1 is really a huge achievement for the org. It is a huge milestone for the players that helped us. This is also a big accomplishment for them.”
Jonathan expounds on how he feels after the org has finally reached the milestone of winning an event or Pacific Stage, is RRQ’s best result so far throughout the past few years, and that their long-term plans have finally bore fruit, sharing:
Jonathan: “Of course, players go in and out, and we have to retool the team here and there to find the right pieces, but I’m really happy with where we’re at at this moment.
It took us half of the partnership period, but I think it’s slow and steady progress. And I think that was also our sort of pitch to Riot in the sense that once, as an org, we decide to really invest into a game, we really go all in. And that takes time. We were given that time, and to be able to finally achieve something like this, it’s really great.”
Ultimately, it was validation for all the hard work by the team and organization after their win over GEN.G at the Stage 1 Pacific Grand Finals, taking home the org’s first trophy.
Yet, the road there wasn’t easy. Before their grand finals encounter, RRQ have only beaten GEN.G once in the seven times they’ve played against each other since the start of this partnership era. When asked how they were finally able to overcome one of their more challenging opponents, Jonathan credits the team’s coaching staff, and also a specific player, saying:
Jonathan: “I think that’s credit to Ewok, crazyguy, and Warbirds. Because I think after the first upper finals, they definitely had a talk about what happened. And then going into Paper Rex, I joined their discussion the morning of, and they had a good game plan on how to play against Gen.G, especially on the maps that we basically got stomped on, or their strongest maps, like Lotus. So they really had a good feeling and a good read on how to play against Gen.G.
I think it’s credit to them that they were able to find that hole or weakness. I mean, you can’t say Gen.G is a weak team, but just to find that opportunity, that hole in their defense that we were able to take advantage of. So I think kudos to Ewok and crazyguy, because they barely slept and were discussing all night on how to counter them.”
As mentioned by Jonathan, not only was the coaching staff heavily involved in creating a gameplan to achieve the win, but their newest player, Ngô “crazyguy” Công Anh, was also very participative in that process, a player that Jonathan will later on sing even more words of praise about during this interview.
Though even Jonathan himself seems to admit that the circuit also benefits them at the moment, when it comes to the current map rotations and patch. That, or perhaps he’s just a humble guy. Either way, whatever outside factors might be present, it comes down to how the team plays and executes their plans, as Jonathan mentions.
Jonathan: “We were very fortunate that this patch favored us in a way. The map rotations or the map pool kind of favored us because we’re pretty decent on most of these maps, which is great. We have a good grasp on how to play each map, whichever one they pick or we pick, it didn’t really matter. And they took out probably their worst map in a way, which was Fracture. So for the rest, I think it’s good for us.
This iteration of the map pool is pretty good because during kickoff, Bind was in, right? And that was our permaban [chuckles]. Yeah, so it worked in our favor a little bit. But I think at the end of the day, it’s down to the boys in their execution and play.”
Trusting The Process
RRQ are one of the few teams left in the Pacific circuit who have held onto their head coach and at least 1 original member from the start of the partnership era; of the 10 teams that were originally onboarded into the Pacific League at its inception, only about half of those can claim that case to still be true.
With the ever-changing and fast pace of esports competition, it can be tempting for organizations to want to prioritize achieving immediate success over long-term development stages. Esports teams are not cheap, and this only further incentivizes results-based decisions.
But one of those important decisions anybody running an organization’s competitive division has to make is choosing the right head coach. As an org, you have to fully align with their vision, trust their process to attain that, and stand by them when things don’t go as planned. He mentions how giving RRQ’s head coach, Marthinus “Ewok” Walt, proper time to fully build the team up has been beneficial in the long run:
Jonathan: “I think as the game has evolved, we do need players who are more flexible with their roles. We did well by sticking with a coach and letting him try to evolve the team, because if we keep changing coaches or blowing up the team, there’s just no stability.
And I think with teams like this, we need some stability. Once that’s in place, it’s about adding a few more pieces here and there, and then seeing how far that new piece can take us before analyzing things from there.
If it doesn’t work out, then we just have to make changes, and we need to be brave enough to do that. I think that’s one of the key things. It’s much like football. If a new manager comes in, you need to give them a few transfer windows so they can build the team and get the players they need to execute on their vision.”
And with that baseline stability achieved, they finally felt like they could add another mind to the madness, more chefs in the kitchen if you will, in an assistant coach in Evan “Warbirds” Olzem. Formerly the head coach of Team Secret, Jonathan suggests that because of his previous coaching experience as a head coach as well, Warbirds knows exactly how to complement Ewok’s coaching and is what sets him apart from previous options they’ve tried, as well as being a tremendous help in managing the load a solo head coach would have to bare:
Jonathan: “As a [former] head coach from Team Secret, he’s a huge help compared to some of the previous assistant coaches that we had. […]
So he knows personalities or characteristics, and to have another mind that can help Ewok, and another pair of hands so that he can kind of think about the big picture. Ewok can think about the big picture, and Warbirds can kind of work more closely with some of the players if they have any questions or whatever the players need.
And for Ewok to have somebody that he can trust at the end of the day to give advice and to give the right kind of reads or strategies, and to have somebody just to bounce off proper ideas, I think that’s really valuable. I really appreciate him coming in as well.
He probably got offered somewhere else. I know he did, but his decision to join us and to join this project also speaks volumes about the sacrifice he had to make. It shows that he also believed that we are building in the right direction with our team.”
World-class coaching staff is undoubtedly one of the most important supporting structures a premiere organization like RRQ can provide to its players, and is what fans and people typically immediately think about when one mentions “Support Staff”; but he also wanted to stress on is how important the rest of the team’s supporting staff has been, namely their team manager, and performance coach.
These are two of the most underrated roles in the world of esports and competition, and it’s great to hear about how much RRQ and Jonathan not only understand their importance, but also appreciate and recognize how much those staff members contribute to the team, and their impact:
Jonathan: “I just want to also add that it’s not only the addition of Warbirds, but our supporting staff as well, that I think really changed this year. Our team manager and our performance coach also really, really helped the team so much, and the players and everybody, so that they just 100% focus on the game.
And they are able to take some of the… I won’t say stress, but take some of the mental load off of them, and I think that shows in the players’ performance at the end of the day.
So kudos to our team manager and our performance coach for helping the team in that sense. They’re the unsung heroes. They work in the background. They don’t get a lot of credit. They do a lot of the hard work. And we’re really, really lucky this year.
Again, it’s just finding the right pieces, not just for the players and coaches, but the supporting staff as well, that really help us accomplish what we have been able to do so far.”
All that said, Warbirds isn’t the only roster pickup they’ve had in recent times. After former player Park “Estrella” Gun decided to leave the team for another Pacific team in DRX, it left an opening within the team, and big shoes to fill, which came in the form of crazyguy. I told you guys we’ll get back to him soon.
A veteran player in his own right, crazyguy has been competing for over a decade, well before VALORANT even existed, much more so the VCT. This experience, for them, has translated to a great leader figure during matches, and Jonathan also states how crazyguy has been notably guiding his younger teammates through the woes of competition.
Jonathan: ”It’s a testament to Công as well, crazyguy. He was coming into the team as the most experienced player. He [has] 14 years [of experience] in competitive gaming, right? Starting from CS and then moving to VALORANT.
So he brings a wealth of experience, a wealth of experience that, you know, maybe other IGLs within the league don’t have. He’s been in all sorts of situations.
And so he knows, and he has the maturity to come in and also help guide some of the other boys. I think it was a blessing in disguise, at the end of the day, that we were able to get crazyguy onto our team. I really feel like he is the missing piece that helped us take the next step in terms of personalities within the team.
So we were very, very fortunate to do that. It was stressful. It was a stressful week or so, once news dropped that Estrella did not want to continue.
Just unfortunate with the situation in his previous organization. But I think we were just really fortunate to have him come on board.
And he was so excited and grateful, which is really great to have that person that just wants to work hard and just achieve as much as possible”.
With the type of veterancy and experience behind a player with his kind of history, it’s natural for some to potentially become hard-rooted in their ways, a lesser player could certainly turn out that way; but not crazyguy, who Jonathan praises for being the exact opposite: experienced and mature, sure, but still very hungry to compete, and quite willing to integrate into the team’s system, instead of changing it to fit around himself.
As to how the team was able to integrate him in so quickly, with very little time to work with before the Stage 1 start, Jonathan shares his perspective and how he saw the team acclimate to the sudden change, seeing it as more than just a hurdle, but also an opportunity:
Jonathan: ”How were we able to integrate him so fast? I think it was a lot of hard work from the whole team. Because we were coming back from like mini break after kickoff, and we’re about to start anew, start grinding and start practicing again, but we couldn’t.
The team already had one kind of mindset to go in, but because of everything that happened, they were like, OK, we have to start playing with crazyguy.
And then so it’s a team effort that everyone worked really hard to get him acclimated with the team, and it’s also on Công as well to really adapt and read the team as much as possible; how he can call better or talk to them better.
So I think really it was a team effort. And ultimately, because communication was much smoother, it really helped.
And everybody could just be honest and show their feelings and say what’s right or what’s wrong or what they should do or not do. So I think that was the key to crazyguy integrating with the team so quickly.”
Afterwards, he continues to emphasize just how much crazyguy has helped smoothen out and refine the communication within the team during competition, eventually also sharing what he views as some of the best aspects of the current RRQ roster:
Jonathan: ”I think if you look at some of our voice comms videos recently, crazyguy has really tried to fill that role. And to be honest, that’s what we were lacking, honestly, is that little bit of leadership within the team.
Just a leader, just someone that can put in the work, lead by example, because it can’t be coming from the coach, even though Ewok works so hard. But at the end of the day, it’s the players that have to do the execution, that have to do the work. And so if you have someone like crazyguy who’s willing to put in the work, who’s willing to take on that leadership role to help guide some of the players or the team in the right direction. And especially he’s been in, he’s been competing for over 14 years. It really, really helps a lot.
But Cahya (Monyet), being young, he’s always optimistic and always tries to get the team thinking positively, which is also great.
In terms of the voice within the team, crazyguy really, really helped fill that hole. And then, just as a hard worker, Jemkin is a super hard worker. For someone that young, when he first came into our team, it was really a surprising thing to see.
Like really great to have someone that young and just willing to sacrifice a lot and and just work right, and just achieve right, and want to achieve as much as possible. So that was good.”
Of course, with these incremental improvements over the years, RRQ have found themselves standing on solid, stable ground now, but it wasn’t always that way. To achieve the stability they now possess, they had to take some risks. When asked about some of the biggest risks the team took throughout its VALORANT journey, Jonathan shares, after giving it a good minute of thought, that it was sticking with head coach Ewok from the start.
Sometimes the most risky move is not making a move at all. This is in tune to what was said earlier, when many teams might feel incentivized to blow up their roster, or make hasty changes to the roster once their results don’t match their immediate expectations, RRQ have decided to trust their head coach in Ewok over the years, and while it might’ve been a risk, its paid off in the long run. At least, so far:
Jonathan: “I think sticking with one coach throughout this whole time brought stability to the team, at least a baseline stability, right? Players will always come and go, but I think our decision to stick with Ewok and help him build the team he wants was a great decision on our end.
Listening to our fans, especially Indonesian fans, they were saying, ‘Ewok out, Ewok out, Ewok out,’ right? But I think sticking with him as a coach really helped bring that baseline stability to the team. It gave him the time to build out the roster. Because if you keep blowing things up or changing coaches, there are always new ideas the players have to adapt to. If they don’t adapt fast enough, then who can you blame, right?
It’s just about eliminating as many uncontrollable factors as possible, so there are no excuses. I think that helped the team get to where it is now.
Of course, we were very lucky to get Jemkin—he almost didn’t join our team. And with Monyet and the whole Paper Rex situation, we were also very lucky to get a player of his caliber. We could’ve gotten him at the beginning of the partnership, but a decision on Ewok’s side didn’t pan out. You make some good decisions and some bad ones, but at the end of the day, it’s the management that makes the final call.
So, to have the opportunity to bring him onto our team again was really good. And we worked really hard to get Kushy, pushing to get him out of ‘jail.’ Sticking with David as well, xferro, is a testament to his ability to go through so many roster changes and still be here. It shows he’s been able to adapt, to evolve with the team, and still deliver good individual performances to stay on the roster.
So yeah, ultimately, I think our decision to stick with Ewok over the last couple of years helped us grow into where we are today.”
What’s On The Horizon
With their newfound achievements and a direct playoff seed into Masters Toronto, there’s a lot to look forward to for RRQ fans. Yet, being their first time at this stage, it’s natural that teams may underestimate them, as is common with Pacific teams anyway. Though RRQ doesn’t seem to mind too much, saying that at the end of the day, they’d rather focus on their own performance instead of getting distracted by preconceived notions of them:
Jonathan: “I think sometimes I kind of echo Ewok’s thoughts that it’s okay if people underestimate us. We want to be that. We don’t want people to say we’re always the favorites or whatnot. If people underestimate us, then great, up to them.
But at the end of the day, it’s about looking within ourselves and trying to prove that we do belong here. We’re actually a good team with good players, and we can achieve a lot.
So I think it’s always within our own belief and self, what we want to achieve as a team. And individually, maybe what they want to achieve. But most importantly, it’s a team effort. And buying into the vision of how we play and trying to achieve it together as one.
So yeah, if we’re underdogs, great. If we’re favorites, great. I don’t think it should really matter. At the end of the day, as a team, we just need to execute, do well, and try to win as much as possible. If we go into a game, execute our game plan perfectly, and still lose, then kudos to the other team, I guess.
But what I always feel is that I want the team, the players, the coaches to always give 100 percent, leave it all out in the server, and have no regrets when they play. And no regrets if they decide to leave VALORANT. If they don’t achieve everything they can but gave it everything, then I think they can walk away from the game happy that they tried and reached a certain height. And that’s fine.”
Still, it’s good to temper expectations of course, as Jonathan shares their expectations for their upcoming run at Masters Toronto, he shares that while the ultimate goal is to make Champions; in similar tone to RRQ’s patient gameplan theyve exercised as an org these past few years, they understand that this Masters Toronto event is about just gaining more experience, and that this is merely a stepping stone to their true goals:
Jonathan: “My expectations for the team, to be honest, are just to go out and, like I mentioned before, leave it all on the server. They’ve already worked so hard in the first half of the year to put themselves in a position to compete at a Masters event. I really feel like they shouldn’t let this moment pass them by.
Even though, when we first set out as an org, our ultimate goal was to make Champions—to be able to play in the biggest Valorant tournament—this is a great stepping stone and a great experience to help us get there. It’s also a chance for the team to gain experience together, playing against great teams from other regions.
For me, I just don’t want these players to let this opportunity slip. I want them to really go for it and try to achieve as much as possible. So yeah, we made it to Masters—great. Now what’s next? We should always keep setting more goals for ourselves.
I think just having the opportunity to be on the stage, to compete, and to go far in the tournament is the most important part. Hopefully they’ll take this experience and apply it in Stage 2, and ultimately, hopefully in Champions as well.”
But of course, while the team understands that it might not necessarily be in a trophy-or-nothing mindset this tournament, they remain optimistic about what the team can achieve, fully believing in the current roster. And how can’t they? A #1 finish in Pacific (best region in the world btw), with some incredible talent all around, cracked young players led by a veteran of competition; on paper, it looks like a pretty good competitor for a winning formula:
Jonathan: “I really feel like this team can do it. We’ve got Jemkin, who’s a machine. We’ve got crazyguy, who’s actually a fragger and an IGL. Everybody’s been talking over the last couple of years about needing a fragging IGL. We have that in him. We got one.
And then new blood like Kushy. David’s been around; he’s been to Champions before, so he knows what it takes to get there. And Cahya, who is just really high skill-wise, but he’s still very young. He’s only 19, and I feel like he has a lot of room to grow. I think it just comes with time and opportunity. He will become a more complete player as time progresses.
So I really feel like we have a solid team right now, and comms are not an issue anymore. I can hope, and I have a very optimistic view of the team. But I’ve always had an optimistic view of the team.”
As they’re directly seeded into the playoffs for Masters Toronto, I asked Jonathan who they’d want to come up against in the tournament, of which he shares first and foremost, his support and wishes that all the other Pacific teams make it out of the Swiss stage (at the time this interview was recorded, the swiss stage has yet to have concluded):
Jonathan: “I gotta support our APAC bros, you know, making it out of the Swiss stage. Sentinels would be great, just so we can finally get all their fans to maybe be like, ‘Oh sh**, RRQ’s actually a legitimate team,’ right? Since they have a lot of viewership and a big fan base, maybe playing against them can help us get some new fans [chuckles]. Heretics would be fun for Monyet—a little mini rematch for him from Masters Madrid.
And the APAC boys—we can play them later. We play them a lot anyway. Especially Gen.G. Especially Gen.G. Aspas and Jemkin would be insane. I would love for that to happen, because I really feel Jemkin is actually, probably, in my biased opinion, the best duelist in the world right now [laughs]”
Of course, their first time at a stage this grand would mean a lot of the global VALORANTt audience will be exposed to RRQ for the first time, as a large part of the audience might not tune into regular season Pacific matches, and others might even only tune into competitive VALORANT during international events such as a Masters.
When I asked him what he hopes a new, first-time viewer and potential fan will hopefully see in RRQ during their international debut at Masters Toronto, he shared his thoughts, saying:
Jonathan: “Oh, yeah. I want them to see us as a team that legitimately tries hard and plays VALORANT the right way. Respects the game, respects the opponents.
But I hope they bring out their swagger. I hope they play really well and show the world that RRQ VALORANT belongs on this stage. We belong with the top dogs. We belong in the conversation of being one of the top teams in the world, or at least in the discussion, whether it’s through YAP2ASIA or Plat Chat or whatever it may be.
Moving forward, I want us to always be in that conversation. Like, ‘Hey, RRQ VALORANT is actually a good team, and they can win stuff.’ Not only Gen.G, not only Paper Rex, or Fnatic, or Sentinels. I want our name, our team, to be there all the time.
So I hope we are able to showcase that in this tournament and really show the world that there are talents from Southeast Asia who can compete on the world stage. That’s always what I wanted.
I want RRQ to be a platform for Southeast Asian players, Indonesian players especially, to showcase their skills. We have a little Russian guy, but he’s an anomaly [laughs]. I don’t know what they feed all these guys in Russia, but it really seems like they produce some of the best talents for some reason. Really crazy.
But I want the VALORANT community as a whole to see that we are a legitimate contender. That we can compete to qualify for international tournaments, and also compete domestically in our league.
We’ve always been, for the past two and a half years, just that middle-of-the-pack team. Which is okay, but I don’t want to be in the middle all the time. We have to push toward the top of the table. Hopefully the boys are ready, they’re prepped, and they are able to showcase their skills, their flair, their personalities, and their overall teamwork. That’s what I’m so excited about, to be honest.”
An honest take, and a small shoutout to our own little podcast at YAP2ASIA, but ultimately you can tell that RRQ really want to prove, not just to themselves, but to the rest of the world that they deserve to be where they belong. Which, funnily enough, is kind of where they’ve always been from the start of the partnership era.
As he mentioned earlier in the article, a lot of people, at the start, questioned their place as the Indonesian organization to represent the region in Pacific, as other organizations more known to the VALORANT audience, such as BOOM (who eventually found their way to Pacific through an amazing Ascension run, plus some lucky fortune), and Onic, were at the time local favorites in the Indonesian scene and circuit.
But any and all doubt has simply fueled the fire under team RRQ to get better, to improve day by day, to make smart and calculated decisions, which, under all that pressure from fans, is very commendable.
At the end, I of course had to poke a bit of fun at the current memes of our friend, and everyone’s favorite cursed RRQ fan, Will “Chobra” Cho, and ask Jonathan, is the curse real?
blackenblue: And, uh, lastly, is Will Chobra cursed? And should he keep the RRQ jersey on?
Jonathan: “Will he keep the RRQ jersey on? Ah, it’s up to Chobra, man. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter to us. But you know what? Chobra’s been there since day one of RRQ’s journey.
Ever since we came into partnership, we made content with him. He was one of the first casters, along with Tasteless, who did our content. So I’m really appreciative of him supporting us, being there, and talking about us. Because at the end of the day, without him, maybe we wouldn’t have gotten more fans. Maybe more people wouldn’t know about his curse.
For me, I’m really appreciative. And yeah, he can always be an RRQ fan. I really feel underneath that Nongshim outerwear, he’s still RRQ’s number one fan [laughs]”
Jonathan: “Thank you everyone for supporting our journey throughout this partnership era. We started slow, you could say, but I think we’re trying to build the team the right way. We’re trying to build the culture the right way. We’re trying to build our fandom the right way.
We’re very appreciative of everybody who supports us, or doesn’t support us, even those who hate us. Just keep it coming. Because at the end of the day, it fuels us a bit more.
Please support us during our journey in Masters Toronto. It’s our first one. It’s going to be super exciting. First one as an org, and we can’t wait to show you what we can do, especially on the international stage now. So thank you!”
And you definitely can’t forget about the team RRQ bundle!
Jonathan: ”And also one more thing everybody please please buy the RRQ bundle! It really goes a long way to supporting us as a team, and showing that hey you know what, you guys are some sort of fans of RRQ, so yea. Please go out there and buy it and hopefully we’ll make it on the first page in the game! [laughs] Thank you!”
As RRQ move into their first match of Masters Toronto, they do so with a lot to prove, yet, also a lot to learn. And while they might’ve started off a bit slower, after a fantastic finish during Stage 1 of the Pacific League, they are looking better than ever.
Part of falling in favor of fortunate opportunities, is being ready in the first place, and that’s what RRQ have been from day 1, ready to seize the moment when it comes.
As Rex Regum Qeon steps into their first match on the international stage at Masters Toronto vs Wolves Esports from China, it’s hard not to cheer for the first-timers on the block. If anyone can rise to the challenge and surprise us all, it’s these guys.
We’d like to thank Jonathan Hoo from RRQ for giving us the time to speak with us for this interview.
RRQ CEO Andrian “AP” Pauline also left a message to VALO2ASIA:
“Overall, we are just very happy with the results after all the backlash from the VALORANT community over the past 3 years. No one believed in us until we lifted the trophy. We proved to the community and Riot that RRQ deserves to be in the VCT Pacific! We are surely one of the best in Southeast Asia now. We’re not a joke anymore. But you know, all the hard work, evaluation, sweat, and tears really paid off. Maybe the quotes are right—hard work never betrays results.”
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Cover photo courtesy of VCT Pacific
