SoaR Gaming announced recently that the team would be exiting the VALORANT scene with no concrete plans for a return. Michael “Mak” Maknojia made the announcement in a video posted to the SoaR Gaming twitter. He thanked the creators and sponsors that have helped SoaR Gaming become the brand it is today. Mak stated that SoaR was “only looking to do way more in the future…” and wants to “make big plays in the gaming world.” Mak alluded that SoaR Gaming would one day return to VALORANT, once it made sense financially. Until their return, the competitive VALORANT team will be disbanding.
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The decision comes following a statement in May that the organization SoaR Gaming would be doubling down on their content. They’ve made videos like a parody interview show called “Between Two Gamers.” Their successful VALORANT TikTok currently has 22.4k followers. According to the article posted in May, their three TikTok accounts totaled an impressive 5 million views and 377k likes in just a month. Their YouTube channel boasts 884K subscribers and posts weekly, proving that their content creation alone can be successful. Although SoaR Gaming started as a competitive team in 2011, it has since partnered with RBC and grown into a full business.
Mak explained that the business needs to constantly monitor the costs and benefits, and that running a VALORANT team just wasn’t reasonable in the current circumstances. He stressed that it was a difficult decision, and that the move would be temporary with no given date for return. It was only the competitive team that SoaR Studios would be retracting. The SoaR VALORANT Tiktok account is still posting daily with no signs of slowing down.
Mak publicly thanked the SoaR Gaming VALORANT Team: Ngawang “epathy” Chonjor, Lucas “fiziq” Blow, Victor “v1c” Truong, Ashley “Trill” Powell and head coach Benjamin “trainer” Bravo. Currently, all members of the team have been released and are looking for new teams to play for. Hopefully, SoaR’s name will help them find a new spot elsewhere.
Today, we have made the difficult decision to exit competitive Valorant. pic.twitter.com/WeG68uS40d
— SoaR (@SoaRGaming) July 15, 2022
The team, based in Canada, was short-lived in the VALORANT Competitive scene. Originally, Soar Gaming was a Call of Duty team that was founded in 2011 and disbanded in 2018. They have also formed teams for Fortnite and Apex Legends. Despite its short run, the SoaR Gaming VALORANT team went toe-to-toe with and won against big names like TSM, 100 Thieves and The Guard. SoaR Gaming championed the Nerd Street Gamers Summer Championship (C-Tier), and tied for third and fourth place in the Proving Grounds $20k (B-Tier) earlier this year. Despite their victories, SoaR Gaming had yet to compete in an A-Tier or above tournament. That means that they never reached official recognition by Riot.
The decision to disband their VALORANT team seems like the right move for SoaR. Now, they can focus on building their brand and content. They’ll return once they can support a competitive team, which takes a lot of manpower.
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