If you follow the Valorant competitive scene, you may have heard about the news regarding the professional squad “Soniqs.” Minutes after their heartbreaking loss in the NA Challengers competition, their organisation dropped them. This has raised quite a few eyebrows in the community, with many individuals questioning the current state of the competitive tournaments in Valorant.
So what happened, and why did Soniqs disband?
Teams that didn’t make it to the Challengers League won’t have another chance to play in an official tournament until 2024. With the upcoming start of franchise leagues, there will no longer be open qualifiers for VCT competitions all year.
When this is taken into consideration, it makes perfect sense for any team to wait until the next year before deciding whether or not to continue paying their players. Soniqs were quick to ensure that this was done as quickly as possible after they suffered this loss. It took the owners less than an hour to tell their players to look for other opportunities.
Soniqs Disbanded: Why the Top Valorant Team Was Dropped After NA Challengers Loss
As painful as it may sound, it is hard to disagree with the decisions taken. No organisation would want to pay players’ salaries for an entire year if they did not compete in any official events. This would have been a completely different story if they were popular streamers, but they are not.
The members of the team have tweeted that they are considering applying for roles on other teams, either as players or even as coaches.
Thank you to @SoniqsEsports for everything over the past year.
With that being said I will be LFT as a unrestricted player or a coach, my ability to frag and IGL I believe would be beneficial to any roster. Also open to ANY paid coaching gigs. https://t.co/sfBqefhBOA
— C9 runi (@runiVL) January 23, 2023
This entire “Soniqs” situation calls into doubt the competitive opportunities Valorant has planned for its players. The uncertainty of the scene, with teams and individuals continually transferring organisations, is one of the most challenging issues. This can make it difficult for fans to keep track of their favourite players and teams, as well as for teams to achieve sustained success.
In order for the competitive Valorant scene to continue expanding and thriving, the game’s developers and tournament organisers must reevaluate how they intend to run tournaments. This might involve establishing a more fair and disciplined competition calendar.
Already in January, teams are dropping players. This is certainly something Valorant should look into. Every three to four months, which is how long a season lasts, I believe the game should give a chance to any team good enough for pro play. This Soniqs episode may force Riot Games to make changes for next year’s VCT tournaments. For the time being, we’ll likely have to see Riot Games finish off this year the way it’s been planned.
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