Kroenke Sports and Entertainment have entered VALORANT, along with a rebrand of their esports side to The Guard.
Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, owners of sports teams all around the world, have officially entered VALORANT, alongside a rebrand of their esports operations to The Guard.
Thus far, three players have been signed - Harrison "Psalm" Chang, Jacob "valyn" Batio, and Michael "neT" Bernet. The rebrand will see KSE's Overwatch League and Call of Duty League teams, the Los Angeles Gladiators and the Los Angeles Guerrillas, now fall under the banner of The Guard. This follows in the footsteps of other owners of slots in Blizzard's esports leagues, such as Version1 and Andbox.
The roster
Psalm is definitely the most well-known player on this list, and is one of the most-travelled players in all of esports. His fame primarily comes from Fortnite, where he placed second to Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf at the 2019 Fortnite World Cup. Prior to playing FN, though, he was a professional Heroes of the Storm player and semi-pro in DOTA 2, and also tried his hand less successfully at CS:GO and League of Legends.
In VALORANT, Psalm made waves in 2020 as part of Dignitas. DIG would fall off hard heading into 2021, though, and were eventually dropped. Psalm has been teamless ever since.
Fans who have been following the lower levels of the North American VALORANT scene will recognize neT. The young sentinel player has been on the rise for a while now. After trials with Andbox and Pittsburgh Knights, he's finally found a permanent home.
Lastly, valyn comes from Complexity's VALORANT team. Complexity have had an incredibly rough go of it in VALORANT, but valyn had some impressive moments, especially considering he was the team's IGL at just 18 years old.
Expectations for The Guard
Unlike most other new rosters we've seen, The Guard have signed a trio of support players. That leaves them needing some fragging power, something that's maybe easiest to find in the lower levels of play. In addition, with the offseason already having begun for many big orgs who failed to make Champions, we could see some high-profile free agents fall in the hands of a new face with money to spend.
With the trio they've signed, it seems The Guard will start at a level around middle-of-the-pack in North America. With promising young pieces, though, this isn't a bad thing, and it certainly depends on who they finalize the roster with.
Stay tuned to Esports.gg for the latest VALORANT news and updates.