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Riot Games recently announced the names of all the teams that have been selected for the upcoming Valorant Pacific League. While a total of 30 having been have been selected globally, 10 tout of the total pool have been selected from the Asia Pacific region.
Talon Esports is one such team to have secured a spot in the Valorant Pacific League. Compared to many counterparts out there, Talon Esports is fairly new to the professional circuit in the game. Moreover, the VCT 2023 tournament could be considered as their first major appearance in a tournament backed by Riot Games.
Talon Esports is one of the 10 teams selected for the Valorant Pacific League
While there have been rising concerns about the lack of teams from the Oceania region, other areas falling under the ambit of the Valorant Pacific League have a decent amount of representation. Although Talon Esports has just made an entry into the Valorant circuit, the team has been around since 2016.
Talon Esports hails from Thailand; the organization, however, isn't a stranger to professional circuits. They're a big name in the Arena of Valor and the League of Legends circles, and have won multiple championships in said titles. The team will be looking to replicate the same amount of success in Valorant, like they have in other major esports titles.
They recently announced their participation in the Valorant Pacific League with a post on their website. In it, they stated that they are excited to provide a platform to the talented players of Thailand, allowing them to showcase their talents on a global scale.
As stated by CEO of the organization, Sean Zhang, VCT is something that the team has been following closely for a while now:
“We have been closely following VCT since its inaugural season back in 2021 and there truly haven’t been many titles capable of capturing the fascination of gamers across Asia Pacific the way VALORANT has in such a short amount of time.”
He went on to talk about how they wish to provide a platform for Thailand's players, and contribute in making Valorant bigger:
“We cannot wait to provide a platform for the amazing talent in Thailand; to showcase their distinctive playstyle on both a regional and global scale all whilst contributing in making VALORANT the cultural phenomenon it is becoming today.”
That said, this technically won't be Talon's first rodeo. The team had earlier participated in the VCT Stage 2 Phillipines Challengers: Open Qualifiers. However, failed to make it big in the tournament, and earned a 5-6th spot.
Although their roster hasn't been confirmed yet, here are the players who are currently present in it:
- Aaron "gnaru" Bonaobra
- Mark "markL" Lester
- Andrei "Drei" Butulan
- Go "UdoTan" Kyung-won
- Patrick "PatMen" Mendoza
It will be interesting to see if this is the roster that the team ultimately fields in the Valorant Pacific League and the grand tournament that Riot Games will be conducting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in February 2023. Although the announcement about their participation in VCT 2023 came fairly recently, the team is yet to show interest in some of the free agents in the circuit right now.
