Japanese esports organization SETOUCHI SPARKS have announced their new Valorant roster on X (formerly Twitter). The roster consists of Taem1n, whizz, Namikaze, oikou, and 9Lair.
This follows the announcement on December 1st which stated Namikaze and Whizz were joining the Valorant division, and the organization was looking to complete the rest of the roster through public tryouts.
SETOUCHI SPARKS competed in the qualifiers of Stage 1 and 2 of VCL Japan earlier this year with their previous roster. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it very far in either qualifier.
This new roster includes some notable players in the Japanese scene. Starting off with Taem1n, who most recently hails from IGZIST, a team that has competed in the Japanese Challengers League. Before that, he competed with STYLE and TZ Gaming in Split 1 and Split 2 of VCL Japan qualifiers, respectively.
Being only 17 years old, Whizz is newer to the professional scene. However, the up and coming player has previously played for SYLPH. Namikaze is another player who has played for a couple teams in the Japanese scene, previously playing for SETOUCHI ENLIFE and Team Q.
oikou is an experienced player in the Japanese scene, having represented the country in the 2022 Red Bull Campus Clutch tournament. Additionally, he has played for teams such as RELATION X, New Team, and GyoGun throughout the past couple of years. Although those teams didn’t make it super far, they still gained valuable experience competing in the VCL Japan qualifiers.
Last but not least, rounding out this roster is 9Lair, who is also known as ekurea. The 20-year-old most recently competed with EELs in the qualifiers for Split 2 of VCL Japan, where they made it to Lower Round 3 of Group H before bowing out of the tournament. The Head Coach of the roster is taki.
VCL Japan qualifiers are set to start sometime early next year, likely in either January or February.
