Brothers competing at Valorant Champions miss out on head-to-head battle
Lance Skundrich/Riot GamesErik ‘d00mbr0s’ Sandgren and Emil ‘eMIL’ Sandgren are twin brothers coaching teams at Valorant Champions 2022, FunPlus Phoenix and Team Liquid respectively, that did not get to face off at the world championship event.
Valorant Champions 2022 has a host of storylines to follow along with, but one of the more intriguing ones was the possibility of a sibling rivalry matchup between FPX’s d00mbr0s and his twin brother eMIL. d00mbr0s has been with FPX since the team was initially signed back in August 2020 and his brother joined with Team Liquid in August 2022 for the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier.
The Swedish twins, born seven minutes apart, have stayed distant from each other over the course of the tournament according to d00mbr0s.
“Legit, we haven’t talked,” d00mbr0s said in a post-match press conference. “I haven’t seen him in over a week.”
The Sandgren brothers keep their distance at Valorant Champions
Lance Skundrich/Riot GamesFor eMIL, he said that he and his twin were competitors first and family second, so to keep the competition pure he preferred to focus solely on his team.
“We respect each other as competitors. So hang around with him too much, it doesn’t make sense to me,” eMIL said in a post-match press conference. “So while we’re competing we’re not brothers or twins. We’re in different teams so that’s how we keep it.”
The two teams have not faced off at Valorant Champions, and following Team Liquid’s exit from the event in their loss to Fnatic in the lower bracket, they won’t do so at this event. Which robs fans of a storyline and eMIL and d00mbr0s of having their family potentially choose a child to root for.
“I am the older brother so I’m the favorite child,” d00mbros said when his team confronted him with that question.
Now, without a competitive aspect to their relationship, eMIL said he is going to lend his support to his brother.
“Right now, when it’s over, of course, I’m going to support him as much as I can,” eMIL said after his team’s elimination from the tournament.