T1 has bowed out of the second Valorant Champions Tour qualifier in the 64th round. This early drop out follows some major roster changes in recent months, which haven’t been too successful.
T1 recently released star players Braxton “Brax” Pierce and Keven “AZK” Larivière from their main roster. This is the second set of major roster changes T1 have made, following their release of Austin “crashies” Roberts and Victor “food” Wong last September. T1’s Valorant roster has struggled since their initial success at the beginning of competitive Valorant.
The last time the team placed in the top two at an event, was in June at the T1 X Nerd Street Gamers Showdown, where they lost to TSM. Since then, they haven’t bettered a top 5 finish at the tournaments they have competed in. Before releasing Brax and AZK, T1 finished even lower than that, at the last Champions Tour qualifier.
Has T1 made too many roster changes?
T1 was one of the first organizations to sign a Valorant roster when the competitive scene began. Initially, they wanted to bring back the iBuyPower team from Counter Strike: Global Offensive, that got banned for match-fixing. That dream fell through when Josh “steel” Nissan signed to 100 Thieves and they replaced him with Overwatch star Ha “Spyder” Jung-woo.
🚨 @T1's new-look roster is OUT of #VCT Stage 1 Challengers 2, losing to Headshot Percentage in the Round of 64.
7-13 Ascent
13-3 Icebox
9-13 Haven pic.twitter.com/wAGw0FSUub— ValorIntel (@ValorINTEL) February 12, 2021
Over eight different players have been signed under the T1 banner since they announced their completive Valorant roster in April. They have made the most changes out of all the franchised organizations that have joined the scene. 100 Thieves come close after they released their original roster of retired PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds professionals. Despite the various changes, it seems like T1 are still struggling to find their footing as a team. They were once ranked as a top-five North American outfit, but have now dropped to 15th according to The Spike’s tier-list.
To keep up with how T1 does during the remainder of the Valorant Champions Tour, stay tuned to Daily Esports.
