Soniqs, an esports organization based out of Australia, dropped its entire Valorant team minutes after it failed to qualify for the North American Challengers League in a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to OREsports.
Hundreds of Valorant teams tried to get a slot in the NA Challengers League via the two qualifiers, but only six made the cut once the dust had settled. Many of the teams looking to get into the league were unsigned or consisted of free agents, but there were some known esports organizations in the running, including Soniqs.
Soniqs’ team seemed to have a foot in the Challengers League after a strong start to Bind, the final map of their lower bracket final match against OREsports. They had a comfortable 9-3 lead, going on to reach match point at 12-9.
But OREsports fought back and managed to win the map in overtime, 14-12, to secure the final spot in the Challengers League. Less than an hour later, it was announced that Soniqs had released their entire Valorant division, including players, coach and manager.
Thank you to @SoniqsEsports for everything over the past year.With that being said I will be LFT as a unrestricted player or a coach, my ability to frag and IGL I believe would be beneficial to any roster. Also open to ANY paid coaching gigs. https://t.co/sfBqefhBOA
— runi (@runiVL) January 23, 2023
Every player from the Soniqs squad said online that they had been let go from the organization and that they are looking for new opportunities in the Valorant scene.
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Soniqs has not responded to Dexerto’s request for comment. The organization has not stated if they are withdrawing from competitive Valorant or if they will return to the game at some point in the future with a new roster.
Soniqs out of the Riot Valorant circuit for the year
Teams that failed to make it to the Challengers League will have to wait until 2024 to have another shot at reaching a Riot Games-ran tournament. With the introduction of partner leagues, the days of multiple open qualifiers for VCT competitions throughout the year have ended.
This means North American players that are not in the Challengers league or the Americas international league most likely will have only smaller tournaments to play for in 2023. The Challengers League Split 1 will kick off February 1, while the Americas League will not start until March 26, though the partner teams will attend VCT 2023 LOCK//IN Brazil before that.
