Avant Gaming reveal their VALORANT roster

Avant, an Australian esports organization known for their rosters in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends, have decided to join the VALORANT competitive scene. The organization has picked up Control’s roster, consisting of Lewis "WAT" Watson, Eric "Exxyyy" Do, Joshua "Lakers" Puopolo, Byron "Spesh" Rowlinson, and Bernard "m4jor" Chau.

The squad played together during the first VALORANT Ignition Series event in Oceania, the ORDER Oceanic VALORANT Open, finishing in 3rd-4th place. Following their performances, they were invited to join the Rise of Valour - Finals, which offers an impressive $70,000 AUD prize pool.

The players are all former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professionals. Although they haven’t accomplished much during their careers on the tactical shooter, it eased their transition into VALORANT. In addition to that, players like Joshua “Lakers” Puopolo and Byron “Spesh” Rowlinson played together briefly during 2019 for Control’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster.

Lewis “WAT” Watson was featured in an interview with Here’s The Thing at the time of the announcement to discuss how the team found each other, their cohesion, and their aspirations to dominate VALORANT’s competitive scene in the Oceanic region.

“Our collective experience in CS:GO was definitely a factor with our top four finish [at the first Ignition Series] but we put in a lot of work developing strategies based around our aggressive playstyle. At the same time it was important everyone was on the same page mid-round. I feel like our aggression really caught a lot of teams off-guard.”

“After placing top four at the ORDER Oceanic Open, we started thinking about looking for an organisation to help brand ourselves and build a good reputation within the VALORANT community. We contacted most of the organisations that had an OPL spot for League of Legends – as we hope to compete in the VALORANT’s eventual equivalent – and AVANT expressed interest in us. We shared the same visions and the rest is history,” said Lewis “WAT” Watson.

How well do you think they will fare against other top VALORANT rosters in OCE? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

**The Avant Gaming VALORANT roster consists of: **

Lewis “WAT” Watson Eric “Exxyyy” Do Joshua “Lakers” Puopolo Byron “Spesh” Rowlinson Bernard “m4jor” Chau