Soniqs, DarkZero Esports, SoaR & FaZe roster updates

We are only a day from the first VCT 2022 tournament in the NA region: VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Open Qualifier 1. Although many teams had finalized their rosters early in the off-season, a handful of teams decided to delay their announcement to ensure maximum time for new players to trial and adjust themselves to a relatively new playstyle. Here are some of the roster changes that were announced today:

Soniqs

Soniqs joined the esports scene considerably later than most of their counterparts. Despite such a late entry, they started participating intensively in all the possible ongoing tournaments to search for their breakthrough and solidify their name among the region’s best. Throughout 2021, they could only find limited success with 1st place in BoomTV Proving Grounds - Season 2 and NSG Summer Champs - Summer Champs - Open 8, and more recently the 2nd place in Rival Room - Rival 1. However, they couldn’t make any of the VCT Challengers events in either of the two stages they participated in the qualifiers for.

Today the team announced that Kyran "dizzyLife" Crombie will be officially benched and Blake "miniature" Gittins will be trialing for the team in the upcoming Challengers Qualifiers event. Miniature has been a part of the Valorant scene since July 2020, but this will be his first time competing on the big stage.

DarkZero Esports

DarkZero Esports also decided to finalize their roster by announcing one last change before the start of the new VCT season. However, the only notable change was the induction of Jamal "jammyz" Bangash to the roster. Similar to Soniqs, DarkZero Esports in 2021, left them less time to acclimate themselves to the developing scene and restricted their opportunity to participate in VCT tournaments. With Nick "Harmon" Harmon being benched in late September, the team was a player short, and the signing of jammyz will hopefully bridge that gap and grant them the edge in tournaments.

SoaR

The biggest announcement of today was from SoaR, who has announced an entirely new roster for the upcoming year. Over the course of the last year, the successes they encountered were far and few between, with two back-to-back 1st places in NSG 2022 Winter Championship - Online Open 2 and Pittsburgh Knights Monthly Gauntlet 2021 - October: Dance of the Skulls, and a recent 2nd place in NSG 2022 Winter Championship - Online Open 8. However, by the end of 2021, the entire team disbanded with players leaving for other organizations such as Cryocells, and Zander.

The new roster is as follows:

Brenden "stellar" McGrath Lucas "fiziq" Blow Ashley "Trill" Powell Victor "v1c" Truong Noah "epathy" Chonjor

FaZe Clan

Even though, FaZe has yet to release official details regarding their roster. The tournament page for VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Open Qualifier 1 on Battlefy leaked the players that will be participating under FaZe’s banner in the tournament. FaZe clan had noteworthy performances through 2021. They had one of the best Stage 1 performances in the region with 1st place in VCT 2021 - Stage 1 - North America - Challengers 3 and 2nd in VCT 2021 - Stage 1 - North America Masters. Furthermore, they also finished among the top 10 teams in the North American region according to circuit points which secured them a spot in VCT 2021 - North America Last Chance Qualifier; however, they couldn’t make it past the first round of the tournament.

Following the Last Chance Qualifiers, though, the players started to part ways with the organizations one after the other with the most recent transfer being that of Corey "corey" Nigra to TSM. The only remaining player in the roster is Andrej "babybay" Francisty, who has been a part of FaZe since August 2020.

Their new rumored roster is as follows:

Andrej "babybay" Francisty Quan "dicey" Tran Andrew "ShoT UP" Orlowski Chris "LarryBanks" Doyi Xavier "flyuh" Carison

Josh "jdm" Marzano (Head Coach)