Sources: Team BDS overhaul Valorant roster after qualifier disaster
BDSTeam BDS have removed three players from their Valorant team as they look to build an international roster after a poor start to the 2022 season, sources told Dexerto.
The Swiss organization is moving away from an all-French lineup and will open the team’s doors to players from other countries following an unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the VCT EMEA Stage 1 Challengers.
Team BDS finished 7th-8th in the first closed qualifier following defeats to Rebels Gaming and TENSTAR. As a result of that, they had to go through the grueling open bracket in an attempt to secure a spot in the second closed qualifier but then fell to an embarrassing defeat against Danish side ‘who cars?’ in the second round.
Vincent ‘Happy’ Schopenhauer, Alex ‘AKUMAAAAA’ Lo Bello, and Jonathan ‘TakaS’ Paupard have all been removed from the team with immediate effect, leaving Rodolphe ‘rodeN’ Bianco, Logan ‘logaN’ Corti, and head coach Flavien ‘wallax’ Lebreton in charge of the rebuilding efforts.
DreamhackAKUMAAAAA and TakaS have been with Team BDS since the Swiss organization entered Valorant in April 2021. Happy, a two-time CS:GO Major champion with LDLC and Envy, was signed in November as a replacement for Guillaume ‘GatsH’ Kalka. According to sources, the decision to sign Happy was made by wallax without the backing of the players, who were caught by surprise.
Sources added that Mikolaj ‘Mickebwoy’ Chojnacki is currently on trial with Team BDS. The Polish player has been a free agent since British organization Rix.GG paused their VALORANT Thunder project for the foreseeable future following a poor run of results in the VCT Challengers qualifiers.
Team BDS Valorant roster:
- Rodolphe ‘rodeN’ Bianco
- Logan ‘logaN’ Corti
- Mikolaj ‘Mickebwoy’ Chojnacki (trial)
- Flavien ‘wallax’ Lebreton (coach)