Despite successfully qualifying for the NA VALORANT Challengers League, one team still has a final hurdle to overcome before starting play on Feb. 1, and they’re counting on the fans (and perhaps an organization rising in stature) to help.
The players on Squirtle Squad will have to take on a new name before league play kicks off at the beginning of February, according to member Peter “Governor” No. Governor tweeted on Jan. 25 that the team has to change their name from Squirtle Squad due to trademark issues between Riot Games and Nintendo.
This is, of course, due to the team using the Squirtle name and image trademarked by The Pokémon Company, a subsidiary of Nintendo. Needing a name, Governor turned to the fans, saying that the best reply would be the team’s name going into Challengers.
A few replies stood out, including the suggestion of “Blast-boyz” by Fnatic captain Jake “Boaster” Howlett that plays on Squirtle’s evolved form Blastoise, an off-brand version of the original name in “Turtle Troop,” and a somewhat inappropriate suggestion of “Squirting Squad” that almost certainly would not get approved by Riot.
But the one that stands out the most, and has garnered the most likes, is the one suggested by Squirtle Squad member Anthony “Okeanos” Nguyen: Moist Esports.
Moist Esports grabbed a ton of new attention yesterday following the announcement that YouTube streaming superstar Ludwig Ahgren would join Moist founder MoistCr1TiKaL as a co-owner. Okeanos mentioned both Ludwig and MoistCr1TiKaL in the tweet, but neither has responded yet.
With a new injection of “money to burn,” and the opportunity to forge a streamer-owner org rivalry with DisguisedToast, maybe Moist Esports will use this chance to hop into VALORANT sooner than expected.
