Gambit Esports to allow Valorant roster to compete as an “Individual team” in EMEA Challengers cover image

Gambit Esports to allow Valorant roster to compete as an “Individual team” in EMEA Challengers

Gambit Esports’ Valorant roster will now be known as M3 Champions in EMEA Challengers per the org’s decision to “Empower their players.”

Gambit Esports will be allowing their Valorant roster to play as an independent team from now on in VCT Challengers. The highly decorated roster will be playing under the name "M3 Champions" for the remainder of Stage 1 and onwards. Here is what we know so far.

Gambit Esports roster to play under the name "M3 Champions" in Playoffs

Gambit's highly decorated Valorant roster have not played in EMEA Challengers since Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. A move which also led to the temporary postponement of of EMEA Challengers. Now, following an announcement on the team's twitter page, Gambit Esports will be allowing their players to adopt neutral colors in VCT competitions from now on.

The roster, comprised of nAts, Sheydos, d3ffo, Chronicle, and Redgar, will now be playing under the name "M3 Champions" for the remainder of their EMEA Challengers Stage 1 matches. This new identity for the roster was announced by the Gambit players as well by the EMEA Challengers Twitter. They will be set to playout all of their suspended matches starting on March 16.

Despite the circumstances surrounding the organization, Gambit appear to be handling things in more collected fashion. As stated in their announcement, Gambit believe that this decision will "empower their players" to take part in upcoming competitions.

As shown by this decision they have made with both their CS:GO roster and now their Valorant roster. A stark contrast to Virtus Pro's conduct in recent days where they referred to ESL's sanctions against them as being reflective of "cancel culture".

Gambit's Valorant roster are the latest in a list of Russia-based Esports that have had to disassociate from their roster as a result of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. It is unclear at this time whether Gambit were facing any external pressure from Riot Games on this matter. Regardless, Gambit's fans will surely be looking forward to seeing their roster in action again; albeit in new colors and under a different name.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Valorant news and updates.