A North American VALORANT team called the Squirtle Squad is being forced to change its name due to Nintendo copyright. Here’s the news.
No fun allowed, according to Nintendo and the VCL. Peter "Governor" No, one of the players from the NA VCL-qualified Valorant team Squirtle Squad tweeted today that the free agent team would have to change their name since Nintendo owns the copyright for the Pokémon from which the name is derived.
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VALORANT knocks out Squirtle Squad name
Governor said on Jan. 26 that the team had been told to rename itself by Riot Games due to copyright issues. Nintendo owns the copyright for the sobriquet ´Squirtle Squad.´ This isn't the first time Nintendo has used its considerable weight for the sake of litigious action.
Famously, Nintendo attempted to sue video rental stores in the 1980s, including former rental giant Blockbuster. The landmark chase changed the landscape of copyright for gaming and also showcased that Nintendo's fierce IP protection knows no bounds.
Squirtle Squad was one of the four teams which qualified for the NA Challengers League. They finished first in the Last Chance Qualifier, only dropping three maps during the Top 32 stage. The team consists of a mix of professional players and popular streamers. The former include ex-XSET player Matthew "Wedid" Suchan, Anthony "Okeanos" Nguyen who had played on several notable tier-two teams including City Boys, Virtuoso, and Girl Kissers, and Jack "Add3r" Hayashi of Knights Academy fame. Governor and Mohammed "Harmful" Choudhary are both popular streamers who round out the roster.
Governor also mentioned that the best reply to his tweet would be the new team name. His teammate, Okeanos, said the team should rename themselves to Moist Esports, a popular NA organization founded by Moist Cr1TiKal. Ludwig Ahgren recently became a co-owner of the organization.
Ahgren, on Mogul Mail´s YouTube channel, said he'd think about possibly signing a Valorant team to the organization. With Squirtle Squad being a team with a confirmed spot in the NA VCL for 2023 and free agents to boot, they´re a good roster to consider signing.
The team should change their names by Feb. 1, which is when Split 1 of the NA VCL begins.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for all your VCL news and notes.
