F4Q are more than just a highlight reel

The F4Q VALORANT team formed for one reason: to get YouTube clips.

“I mean, they’ve straight up admitted to it,” said VALORANT caster Seth “Achilios” King. “When they started competing, the goal was entirely to get more viewership on their streams. This was in no way, shape or form a team that was put together for the purpose of being competitive.”

It’s not an origin story any of the players are ashamed of. In fact, Chae “Bunny” Joon-hyuk takes some pride in the fact that the team was formed just for fun but ended up competing with the best of them. Part of what makes F4Q special is the way they constantly exceed expectations — including their own.

“In Stage 1, we were just looking for highlight clips,” said Bunny. “And then in Stage 2, the objective became taking down Vision Strikers, so all of our practice revolved around preparing for Vision Strikers and beating them. Which we did.”

F4Q rose to international prominence after defeating Vision Strikers in April, cutting short their opponent’s whopping 102 match win streak. Despite the match’s status as among the most memorable of the tournament, neither team ended up making it to Valorant Champions Tour Stage 2 Masters in Reykjavík, as the Korean slot went to NUTURN Gaming. But both teams met again in the Stage 3 Challengers grand final, where Vision Strikers took the match 3-1. And this time, both F4Q and Vision Strikers will be in attendance come VCT Stage 3 Masters in Berlin.

South Korea has, historically, not found much international success in tactical FPS games. The perception that Korean teams would never be competitive at an FPS was and continues to be handily disproven in the field of professional Overwatch, but in titles like Counter Strike: Global Offensive, South Korea has remained fairly insular. As a result, both Korean representatives are seen as underdogs coming into Stage 3 Masters.

Just because they’re coming from the same region, though, it doesn’t mean they’re anything alike. In fact, according to Achilios, they couldn’t be more different.

“They’re polar opposites,” said Achilios. “Vision Strikers is very measured and will play slow if they feel like that’s what they need to do. F4Q is constantly making pedal to the metal, buck wild plays. Bunny is just gonna rush onto a site, whether he’s got a Judge or a Phantom. F4Q really likes to push the envelope. I think they’re going to widen some people’s eyes and make them wonder, ‘how have I not been watching this team?'”