North American esports organisation M80 has confirmed the release of its entire VALORANT Challengers roster.
The announcement noted the departure of its players, Banh ‘bao‘ Bao, Mirel ‘Kyu‘ Braco Hrustemovic, Victor ‘Victor‘ Wong, as well as head coach Chet ‘Chet‘ Singh.
This is shortly after M80’s other two players Eduardo ‘sato’ Sato and Anthony ‘Okeanos’ Nguyen were transferred to Leviatán.
The Challengers slot was given to the players, allowing them to compete as a free-agent team under the name ‘Chet’s Pets‘.
M80 has been a consistent presence in the Tier 2 North American VALORANT scene in recent years. The roster was consistently competing for the top spots in the ecosystem, qualifying for Ascension back-to-back.
The organisation’s highlight came in 2023 when it battled The Guard for the VCT slot in the Ascension Finals. Despite the efforts, however, M80 wasn’t able to defeat the opponent, who was later acquired by G2 Esports and is now dominating the VCT Americas scene.
In 2024, the organisation came extremely close to qualifying once again, only to lose the VCT Ascension final again to Brazilian organisation 2Game Esports, putting an end to M80’s dreams. The line-up used last year was subsequently dropped, forcing them to start from zero for the third time. Unfortunately, the rebuild didn’t last long.
What’s Next for M80?
M80 is a US-based organisation that was founded by Marco Mereu, who previously worked as the Chief Operating Officer at XSET. Even though the organisation has quit the VALORANT scene, M80 still competes in Rainbow Six: Siege (R6), Dota 2, Counter-Strike and eNASCAR. At the end of 2024, the company completed the acquisition of Beastcoast to retain its Dota 2 team, marking its entry into Valve’s game title.
“While our road to Ascension this year ends here, VALORANT will always be part of our DNA. Stay tuned,” said the organisation on their post.