A celebratory day for the teams that acquired VALORANT partnership with Riot Games was a disappointing day for the teams that didn’t get in, including the group at XSET.
Following the “sad news,” XSET has made all five of its players available via free agency, permitting each of them to pursue offers from partnered teams. “All of our players deserve to be playing in the franchised league and we will be supporting them through that process,” XSET said in its statement.
As for the organization’s future in the game, XSET will continue competing in VCT Game Changers with its NA women’s roster XSET Purple and will be “evaluating [its] options for 2023.” Right now, all five starting players are available. Dephh and AYRIN will both be unrestricted free agents with their contracts expiring at the end of this month, meaning they can sign with whoever. BcJ, Cryo, and zekken are all restricted free agents, meaning an offer for them would still have to go through XSET for approval.
The current XSET roster is very interested in staying together and competing together if they can rather than seeking individual offers, according to sources that spoke to Dot Esports. It’s also been reported that the entire staff and roster were being heavily pursued by G2 Esports, who was anticipating acquiring a partnered spot in the Americas league before Riot reversed its decision on partnering with G2.
The XSET roster has been a mainstay at the top of North American VALORANT for the past two years but had their international breakthrough in 2022. They qualified for Masters Copenhagen after winning the NA Challengers Stage Two finals and eventually qualified for Champions 2022, where they finished top six with wins over FPX, XERXIA, and Fnatic.
XSET joins the likes of OpTic, TSM, FaZe, The Guard, and other North American organizations that did not make partnership. With the exception of TSM, who firmly reasserted its commitment to VALORANT, the future for the rest of these organizations in the game is unclear.
