Reality Rift swop Valorant roster, citing age restrictions as a factor
Reality Rift (RR) announced Thursday (19 November) that they released four players from their Valorant roster, citing recently-implemented age restrictions in the game’s professional scene as one of the push factors for the change.
In a statement on social media, the organisation said it was parting ways with James “Liquid” Yap, Maximilian “Maxxy” Ling, Keith “Revrk” Ong, and Jonathan “Cartier” Dharma. Of the four, only Revrk is below 16.
The official ruleset released by Riot Games requires players to at least be 16 years old to play in the game.
The issue was described by the organisation as “not unforeseen, but it was a challenge for us nonetheless”.
“We explored various options, but none of them bore any fruit. As such, it is with a heavy heart that we decided to release Liquid, Maxxy, Revrk, and Cartier from our roster. They are now officially free agents and we wish them best of luck moving forward!” RR said.
With four players out the door, only Rochino “Spyko” Belial and Justin “Maskon” Adams, who turns 16 in December, remain on RR’s Valorant team for now.
RR’s Valorant Team Manager, Jordan Lee, told Yahoo Esports “both Revrk and Maskon were exceptional players”.
“It was pretty straight forward when Riot announced the age restrictions, as much as we'd like to continue having them on the team, there was just no way we could keep them,” Lee said, adding that Revrk had made known his intention to explore other areas of interest to find his passion.
However, in Maskon’s case and with his birthday coming up, Lee said, “Aside from him having quite an insane aim, we're keeping him around to see just how far he can push himself.”
The organisation has also hinted that they will be revealing their new roster.
“Our goal has always been to continuously build on the RR brand, not only do we need to remain competitive, we were also looking to field a strong and ambitious team that share our ideals. We are happy to say that we have found just that,” said RR’s on Facebook.
The organisation is expected to reveal its new roster some time before the Regional Finals of the Malaysia/Singapore division (5-6 December) of the Southeast Asian leg of First Strike tournaments.
Not common in esports
Age restrictions are uncommon in esports, with many professional players across multiple titles starting their careers at a young age, including Jaden Ashman, a Fortnite player who netted US$1 million just shy of turning 16.
However, games that have been produced by Riot have always had a soft restriction for players under 16 years old.
Players under the age of 16 officially cannot create a Riot Games account, which is required to play titles such as Valorant and League of Legends. Valorant itself is a game rated T for Teen by the ESRB and PEGI 16 by the PEGI age rating group.
For more esports news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooEsportsSEA and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page.
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