Soniq Esports announced today, April 1, that the organization has officially signed the Oceanic team ex-EXO Clan. The team is in North America and will compete in Valorant Champions Tour Stage 2 events. The Oceanic roster was a powerhouse in their home region. They only dropped three series under the EXO Clan banner and won the Oceania First Strike tournament.
Most recently, the team won the second closed qualifier for the Valorant Champions Tour in Oceania.
A new era has begun. Introducing Soniqs' VALORANT:@iyencs@pl1xxval@queenbobsta@dizzyaus@crunchyyworld#SoniqBoom pic.twitter.com/1g7w7kLt1d
— Soniqs (@SoniqsEsports) April 1, 2021
Soniqs Esports sign Oceanic ex-EXO roster
After their dominant run in Oceania in the Ignition series, the ex-EXO Clan team’s in-game leader Iyengaran “IyeN” Raju expressed interest in moving them abroad. Under the current VCT qualification system, if a team from Oceania wants to qualify for an international Masters event they must play through their own region. Then, the team must compete against North American teams in a Last Chance Qualifier.
With permission from EXO and due to the recent announcement from Riot Games and their support within OCE for VALORANT, my team as five are looking for international opportunities – all of who are willing to move overseas to continue to pursue our careers in this space. 1/2
— iyen (@iyencs) November 26, 2020
In August of 2020, the team’s Duelist player Chris “pl1xx” Li said in interview with vlr.gg that his team should be given the chance to come to North America and test their mettle against the top teams.
“Riot should definitely give the top teams in OCE a chance to go overseas to show our dominance, because we definitely put the same amount or even more time into the game compared to top NA teams,” he said to vlr.gg.
Under the name God Squad and ex-EXO Clan, the team continued to play in Oceanic tournaments. In January of 2021, Andrew “Ducky” Amos reported to Snowball Esports that the team would be signing with Soniqs and coming to North America.
According to IyeN’s Twitter account, the team left the region on March 24. Now, they will compete in North America, cutting out the middle man to make a run at an international event.
