Korean-based T1 has signed Braxton “Brax” Pierce as a future VALORANT pro player and content creator. He was formerly known as Swag during his Counter-Strike days and was once it's biggest rising star.
VALORANT is still months away from release, but expectations are high that it will be the next big esports shooter. T1 is planning ahead and the signing of Brax shows how serious they are. Apart from their famous League of Legends team, T1 currently have rosters in PUBG, Apex, Hearthstone, Fortnite, Overwatch, Dota 2, and Super Smash Bros. Brax will be their first VALORANT player in their first foray into the tactical FPS world.
Brax retired from competitive CS:GO on February 28 saying, "I am no longer with Swole Patrol. I have decided to take a step back from competitive CS and although I may still stream CS in the future, my main goal is to await the release of Project A and put my ambitions of being the best in the world to fruition." He also posted this on Twitter, "I'm excited to announce I will be joining T1 as their first Tactical FPS player ever. I'm eager to carry my knowledge and understanding of CS over to VALORANT as we both look to build the best team in the world. I couldn't be more confident that we will accomplish great things."
With ambitions to be the best in the world, it makes sense for him to move from CS:GO to VALORANT. In 2015 he was banned from all Valve events due to match-fixing when he was part of the iBUYPOWER team. Since then he has taken part in smaller events and has had a successful streaming career.
This will be the first time that Brax will play for an esports organization outside of North America. He's previously played for Lazarus, iBUYPOWER, and Cloud9. It seems like a good move since T1 is one of the biggest brands in Korea and clearly has the ambition to expand into new territory with the latest games.
VALORANT is an upcoming tactical shooter from Riot Games. It will be free-to-play and feature teams of five in an attacker vs defender scenario. While the game is set in the future, all the characters will come from real-world locations and cultures. The play will be focused on shooting, but characters will also have unique abilities to spice things up. It's been described as a cross between Counter-Strike and Overwatch.
This move by Brax and T1 is a bit of a gamble considering that VALORANT isn't even out yet. There have been countless games that couldn't live up to the hype and ended up fading away. However, Riot Games have a great reputation and seem to have done their homework for their new release. Brax was only 18 when he was banned by Valve and hopefully, VALORANT will be a way to redeem himself.
Sources: Twitter, Dotesports