As the 2023 season of the NA VALORANT Challengers League starts on Thursday, OverActive media have signed Dark Ratio’s roster and given them a rebrand as MAD Lions. The media brand also revealed that they have been providing support to the roster all through the qualifiers.
The OverActive Media brand says they’ve been supporting the team through the entire qualifier as they dive into the tier two league.
The VALORANT roster will be added to the remaining OverActive eSports divisions, which includes the MAD Lions League roster competing in the LEC, the Toronto Ultra in the Call of Duty League, and Toronto Defiant competing in the Overwatch League.
It was revealed last month that talks were going on between OverActive and Dark Ratio’s players. There were insinuations that OverActive was waiting till the players qualified for the Challengers League before sealing the deal. However, OverActive Media Director of Franchise Operations Till Werdermann has refuted such claims.
“We signed [the Dark Ratio roster] before the qualifier. We wanted to sign a team and support them through qualification [with] our knowledge of team performance. [Our goal] was to look at the market, see who we think has the best chances, sign them up, and give them the support.” Werdermanm said.
He further explained that it was OverActive’s decision to hire former Cloud9 White coach Jornen “MoonChopper” Nishiyama and former 100T duelist William “Will” Cheng into the team. Both personnel’s arrival was announced in January.
Furthermore, he explained that the organization decided to go for a team in NA due to the array of talents available in the region as well as the base the organization already has established in the region with other franchises like the Toronto Defiant.
Meanwhile, MAD Lions VALORANT’s first game in their new form will be against TSM on Thursday, Feb. 2, at 3 pm CT.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
