Travis “L1NK” Mendoza has become the final member of Acend’s VALORANT roster just in time for the Europe, Middle East and Africa Last Chance Qualifier, Acend announced Friday.
L1NK grew to prominence as Team Liquid’s controller player. He moved to the Liquid bench on June 2022 to make way for Aurimas “Dreamas” Zablockis’s short-lived stint on the team. L1NK comes onto Acend to replace Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt, who was moved to the bench at the end of June 2022.
New players often prompt role changes within the team, but L1NK will likely continue to operate the supportive agents and controllers that he played for Liquid.
“Super excited to finally announce that i’m joining @AcendClub, going to give it my all for LCQ!” L1NK said in a tweet. “Thank you everyone for supporting and i’ll see you in the server soon.”
Bald buff activated 🔥
Join us in welcoming @L1NKVAL as the final member of Acend Valorant's LCQ roster 💪🏻#RiseUp pic.twitter.com/2IZKapEcTG
— ACEND CLUB (@AcendClub) July 29, 2022
The EMEA LCQ is the final opportunity for teams to net themselves a berth at Champions 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey. With Mehmet Yağız “cNed” İpek, one of Turkey’s most popular VALORANT players, on Acend, there will be a lot of eyes on the team’s performance at LCQ.
Acend are also the reigning Champions winner from 2021. Since that time, the team has failed to find consistent success at the highest level of VALORANT. They’ve gone through a host of roster moves. Now, only cNed and Patryk “starxo” Kopczyński remain from the roster that won the first ever Champions event.
EMEA LCQ
The EMEA LCQ runs from Aug. 7-14. Acend will be one of eight teams competing for one spot at Champions. The other seven teams are G2 Esports, Guild Esports, M3 Champions, BBL Esports, Natus Vincere, OG LDN UTD and L1NK’s former team, Liquid.
Acend’s first match in the double-elimination LCQ bracket will be against M3C.
Fnatic and FunPlus Phoenix became the first two EMEA teams to lock in their spots at Champions.
