SCARZ, the reigning VALORANT Challengers Japan champions, have received a direct invite to compete against some of the world’s best teams at the upcoming Red Bull Home Ground event that’s part of the VCT offseason, Red Bull Gaming announced today. With both Japanese teams currently in VCT likely to make roster moves, this could be a chance for SCARZ players to still make tier one after just falling short in Ascension.
After finishing first in the second split of Challengers Japan, SCARZ advanced to the Ascension tournament for VCT Pacific, but fell short in the grand final, losing decisively to Challengers Malaysia/Singapore winners BLEED Esports. With the invite to Red Bull Home Ground though, the SCARZ players will be given a chance to impress against tier one international rosters like Cloud9, 100 Thieves, ZETA DIVISION, and others to be determined.
Both ZETA DIVISION and DetonatioN FocusMe, the two Japanese organizations represented in the VCT Pacific league, are looking to make roster moves prior to the 2024 season after a disappointing end to their 2023 campaigns. ZETA DIVISION had a middle-of-the-pack regular season, rallied with a triumphant run at the LCQ, but were promptly eliminated from Champions 2023 with losses to Fnatic and NRG.
DetonatioN FocusMe didn’t just have a worse year, but the worst year. The team posted the only winless season across all three international leagues, failing to pick up a single series victory. Both ZETA DIVISION and DetonatioN FocusMe have opened the doors to open tryouts in the last month, signaling that they could both debut with new teams next year.
Related: First major VALORANT offseason event could move up the roster change timeline
Currently, the SCARZ roster is in a state of flux; the team only has four active members, with one of the only two Japanese players in Allen moved to the inactive roster and free agency. Still, a strong performance by the individuals that do play could very well attract the attention of ZETA DIVISION or DetonatioN FocusMe, or any team for that matter.
