Here are the four teams advancing through the Valorant Challengers NA open qualifier cover image

Here are the four teams advancing through the Valorant Challengers NA open qualifier

Four teams battled through the Valorant Challengers NA open qualifier in order to keep their hopes alive of potentially joining the VCT.

The tournament started with 256 teams. Now, we are down to four. There's still a last chance qualifier to come, but a group of players won't have to worry about that. They conquered the Valorant Challengers NA open qualifier for Split 1 of 2023.

Two of the four teams survived without losing a series. They pushed through the upper bracket with their counterparts taking a loss, only to persevere and qualify in the lower rounds. Familiar faces that were once in upper echelons of professional Valorant hope to make their way back.

Here is each team that made it through the open qualifier, joining the invited squads of M80, FaZe Clan, TSM, Shopify Rebellion, G2 Esports, and The Guard.

BreakThru

(Image via Knights Arena on Twitter)
(Image via Knights Arena on Twitter)
  • Brady "thief" Dever
  • Alex "aproto" Protopapas
  • Brock "brawk" Somerhalder
  • Xavier "flyuh" Carlson
  • Tyler "sym" Porter

The first team to advance through the Valorant Challengers NA open qualifier was BreakThru. This is a roster packed with Tier 1 talent. You've got former Luminosity Gaming stars in thief and aproto, a Ghost Gaming standout in brawk, flyuh of FaZe Clan fame, and sym who made a name for himself under TSM Academy.

BreakThru bested the likes of Zer0 Latency, Cosmic Divide, and The Nation on their way through the bracket. Only two maps were taken from them during the tournament, proving that they'll be a tough opponent for whoever faces them in the next stage of Split 1.

Disguised

(Image via Knights Arena on Twitter)
(Image via Knights Arena on Twitter)
  • Drake "Exalt" Branly
  • Joshua "steel" Nissan
  • Amgalan "Genghsta" Nemekhbayar
  • Damion "XXiF" Cook
  • Joseph "clear" Allen

The second qualifying team through the upper bracket is none other than Disguised. This is the roster funded by the immensely popular content creator Jeremy "Disguised Toast" Wang. It is led by Counter-Strike legend steel, known for his time in Valorant with T1 and the First Strike champion 100 Thieves.

This is quite the diverse team in terms of experience. It has former Knights players, one former Immortals player, and another who has gained most of his experience in C-Tier events like Knights Arena and Nerd Street Gamers. Nevertheless, they were favorites coming into the open qualifier and they proved to be the real deal against other heavy hitters such as NSIC and Oxygen Esports.

Oxygen Esports

(Image via Knights Arena on Twitter)
(Image via Knights Arena on Twitter)
  • Logan "skuba" Jenkins
  • Josh "pwny" VanGorder
  • Mitch "mitch" Semago
  • Devon "randyySAVAGE" Bréard
  • Andrew "Verno" Maust

New England-based Oxygen Esports supports teams across multiple titles. They originally began their time in Valorant with a Turkish roster that competed in EMEA. Now, its Valorant team is stationed in North America and is looking to reach the VCT through Challengers and Ascension.

Disguised sent Oxygen to the lower bracket, but they qualified shortly after by taking down Silk Road. You should expect nothing less from a roster that boasts former Knights, Cloud9, and Renegades players. The support of a major organization should give them the push they need to succeed even more in 2023.

Dark Ratio

(Image via Knights Arena on Twitter)
(Image via Knights Arena on Twitter)
  • Justin "Trick" Sears
  • Adam "Ange" Milian
  • Anthony "ZexRow" Colandro
  • Taylor "drone" Johnson
  • William "Will" Cheng

Dark Ratio advanced through the Valorant Challengers NA open qualifier by defeating The Nation in the lower bracket. This stopped Jacky "Stewie2K" Yip from qualifying in his very first professional Valorant tournament. That's something this team made of former DarkZero and 100 Thieves players should be proud of.

Coached by ex-Cloud9 White coach Jornen "MoonChopper" Nishiyama, Dark Ratio had a long road through the lower rounds. They fell to The Nation in the Round of 16, forcing them to win five more games to advance, including the insanely close, but victorious, rematch. Well deserved by them.

There's a lot of Valorant ahead in 2023, so stay tuned to Esports.gg for more news and coverage.