North American VALORANT team T1 have signed South Korean player Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom, formerly of Crazy Raccoon. This comes soon after a trade between Cloud9 and T1, where fellow Korean player Son “xeta” Seon-ho and coach Yoon “Autumn” Eu-teum joined the roster.
Now, T1 has a mixed roster of NA and Korean talent to compete in future VALORANT Champions Tour tournaments.
YOU THOUGHT WE WERE DONE??!?!@MUNCHKING_: Professional VALORANT for T1.
Watch the hypeeee 🔻👀
📺: https://t.co/KEjEsXKDSsHuge shoutout to our freelancer, @IKURAOC for creating this video. Go check it out🔥#T1WIN #T1VALORANT #TogetherAs1 pic.twitter.com/n3HZMJvoYW
— T1 (@T1) May 25, 2022
Munchkin’s path to T1
Munchkin’s esports career didn’t begin in VALORANT, as he originally made a name for himself in the Overwatch scene. As a player for the Seoul Dynasty’s inaugural season, Munchkin served as the team’s hitscan player. After a couple of moves, Munchkin retired from Overwatch and started competing in the VALORANT scene for Cloud9 Korea. Alongside him on that Cloud9 Korea roster were future teammates xeta and Autumn. He showed off his aiming prowess there, helping the team reach the semi-finals at First Strike Korea in late 2020.
In early 2021, Munchkin moved to Crazy Raccoon, a Japanese VALORANT team that would fight to represent the country internationally. Munchkin and Crazy Raccoon wound up winning VCT 2021 Japan Stage 1 Masters and the Stage 2 Challengers Finals. However, the next two times they competed internationally, the Japanese team ZETA DIVISION beat them in the regional finals. This included the most recent event in 2022, where ZETA ended up finishing third at VCT 2022 Stage 1 Masters.
Despite these changes T1 have yet to find success in the 2022 NA scene. However, while they struggled to qualify for Challengers, T1’s recent moves show they’re willing to make big changes if it leads to victory.
