Who’s going to Andbox? Cloud9 changes? Geddes’ VALORANT Mail Room #5

With the recent signing of Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker to Envy, the North American VALORANT scene has been left stunned. 

Yay will likely compete in the upcoming VCT Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs, which is set to begin in a few days. 

But this doesn’t mean other teams will make changes to their rosters, especially those that failed to qualify for Playoffs. 

There are organizations, such as TSM, that are even looking to expand their reach in VALORANT by fielding an academy roster, as reported by Upcomer. 

TSM academy 

any more info on the tsm junior roster?

— Zilo (@ZiloZX) August 5, 2021

It seems like TSM has reached out to a few teams regarding potential interest in joining their organization. 

TSM are heavily linked with the ex-Noble roster, according to multiple sources. This does not mean they’re signing with the organization, however, since an agreement has likely not been met at the time of publication. 

Who will Andbox sign? 

https://twitter.com/paxg0d/status/1423363270988255239

There has been a slight change in the Andbox team since the removal of Jaccob “Yay” Whiteaker, former Immortals player Noah “jcStani” Smith and Zander “thwifo” Kim. 

Former Evil Geniuses player Aleksandar “ALEKSANDAR” Hinojosa was seen playing with the team alongside EZ5 player Eric “kanpeki” Xu, according to multiple sources. Originally, former CS:GO player Austin “Cooper” Abadir was practicing with the side. 

Former SoaR player “neT” is also linked with a move to Andbox, according to one source. He’s played instead of Cooper, according to one source. 

Cloud9 making changes? 

The North American organization Cloud9 have likely failed to meet expectations with their main roster. 

The team was knocked out by Luminosity in the quarterfinals of the VCT Stage 3 Challengers 2 event. This meant Cloud9 failed to qualify for Challengers Playoffs and will not compete at Masters in Berlin, Germany. 

Cloud9 was one of the interested parties in yay, according to multiple sources. It’s expected that Cloud9 could make at least one change to its VALORANT roster, as such. 

The VALORANT ecosystem

The ecosystem will likely remain somewhat the same for the next year.

I believe Riot will look to introduce some form of franchising, similar to the LCS and LEC, for VALORANT, but this remains as speculation. 

Make VALORANT better 

https://twitter.com/wethsworld/status/1423374349579558913

Remove right click from the Classic, nerf walking/jumping accuracy, change Deathmatch, I could go on. 

RealMocking

What team is @realmocking joining

— Anthony (@Vanityxz) August 5, 2021

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