Disguised Toast’s VALORANT team were one of the first two teams from the open qualifier to book their spot in Challengers North America One yesterday.
The veteran in-game leader Josh “steel” Nissan led four unproven players in Damion “XXiF” Cook, Drake “Exalt” Branly, Joseph “clear” Allen, and Amgalan “Genghsta” Nemekhbayar to an undefeated run in the open qualifier.
Disguised beat DRIFT, Coconut Munchers, Entertainment District, Team Fish Taco, where is fullerton, NSIC, and most notably Oxygen Esports to qualify for VALORANT Challengers North America One. They only dropped maps to Team Fish Taco and where is fullerton during their run.
Related: Disguised Toast unveils Disguised roster on eve of NA VALORANT Challengers League open qualifier
As everyone could imagine, Disguised Toast looked emotional when his team secured the victory against Oxygen and shared a few words after the game. “I’m just very happy for them and I hope they are happy as well,” Disguised Toast said on his stream.
The qualification for VALORANT Challengers North America One was a huge step for all parties involved. Disguised Toast is enjoying early success in his first venture into esports, steel will get to play against talented tier-two teams after getting snubbed by partnered VCT squads, and his players will have at least a shot to prove their worth following a period of uncertainty.
XXiF, Exalt, Genghsta, and coach Kyle “OCEAN” O’Brien were playing under Knights in 2022 and saw the organization step back from competition to focus on running the Challenger League after it didn’t secure a spot in the partnership league.
“We made Ascensions,” Exalt said. “I’m very happy and feel extremely rewarded with our hard work. [We were playing] 12 hours a day for the past 2 weeks. [It’s] time to get shit done in Ascensions.”
The first split of VALORANT Challengers North America will run from Feb. 1 to March 14. Team BreakThru qualified for the tournament as well and there are still four spots up for grabs. Two spots will be decided via the open qualifier and the other two will be filled by teams attending the last chance qualifier.
