In an exciting addition to the VALORANT Champions Tour OFF//SEASON tournament circuit, BRENA Esports has announced an upcoming invitational tournament that will feature some of Korea’s best teams alongside surprise invite Cloud9 from North America.
Cloud9 will appear in some form alongside the top two Korean teams from the 2023 seasonโDRX and T1โat the TEN VALORANT Global Invitational from Oct. 7 to 8. With VCT player rosters continuing to shuffle in the off-season, it is unclear which players will represent Cloud9 and DRX at the event. There is one other team competing at the invitational that is yet to be announced.
BRENA, short for Busan Esports Arena, has previously hosted a variety of esports competitions in Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city that boasts its own rich esports culture.
“Who will be the final team to play alongside the pride of the Pacific, DRX, the team highly anticipated for 2024, T1, and the traditional powerhouse Cloud9?” BRENA said in a translated version of their Sept. 22 Twitter announcement.
Though the event is being advertised as a “global invitational,” the team list thus far only lists squads from two regions, leading to speculation the final team might come from another region, such as EMEA or China.
While T1, the third-best team from the VCT Pacific League last season, has essentially finalized their roster early in the off-season, the other two invited squads haven’t locked in for 2024 yet. T1 will likely play the invitational with their 2024 roster, which includes 2023 stars Son “xeta” Seon-ho, Lee “Carpe” Jae-hyeok, and Ha “Sayaplayer” Jung-woo. Their new additions are veteran sentinel Lee “k1ng” Seung-won, rookie Ham “iZu” Woo-joo, and former CS:GO pro player Kevin “xccurate” Susanto.
As for Cloud9, they currently only have two players officially signed to the team: Erick “Xeppaa” Bach and Jake โjakeeโ Anderson. As previously reported, the team is rumored to be bringing back former in-game leader Anthony โvanityโ Malaspina, and also signing a few other notable players.
DRX has had an uneventful off-season so far, and the status of their player roster is yet to be determined. it is understandable that no updates have come from the VALORANT sector of the organization, as DRX winds up for the League of Legends World Championships this coming October.
Though the entirety of the VCT Pacific League was held in Seoul this year, including the championship weekend where Paper Rex took home their regional title, no major VCT events have been held in Busan. The city has been pushing hard for its bid to host the 2030 World Expo, with many international events highlighting the southern city.
The tournament will not only be a great opportunity for the four selected teams to experiment with their new rosters but will hopefully bring even more of the community’s attention to Korean VALORANT.
