Team Liquid decided to double down on their commitment to Riot Games’ esports programs by picking up the impressive Fish123 roster in Valorant. That roster consists of Adam “ec1s” Eccles, Dom “soulcas” Sulcas, James “Kryptix” Affleck, Travis “L1NK” Mendoza and Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom.

The team is fresh of a second-place finish at the WePlay! Valorant Invitational (which was a part of Riot’s Valorant Ignition Series), and achieved first place finishes at several Take the Throne events, the Solary Cup, Mandatory Cup, and COOLER Cup. They recently finished 9-16th at Mandatory.gg Cup, but are looking to bounce back after joining Team Liquid.

ScreaM’s addition to the team was telegraphed despite being a part of GamerLegion’s CSGO squad, as he stood in with the team for the Mandatory Cup and the WePlay! Invitational.

Team Liquid has been one of Riot’s biggest and staunchest supporters over the years. After merging with Curse Gaming back in the early years of the LCS, they became one of the LCS franchised teams, paying $10 million into the program to secure their slot. This investment paid off heavily for Liquid. They’ve been one of the most successful teams in League of Legends history in North America, with several regional championships and Worlds appearances under their belt.

Team Liquid now hope to replicate this success with their new Valorant roster, despite the game’s young age.

“With Riot Games’ proven track record of supporting League of Legends, I expect Valorant to continue its exponential rise towards becoming a Tier 1 esport,” said Victor Goossens, co-CEO of Team Liquid. “I’m incredibly excited for Team Liquid to enter this vibrant new scene, and to support this talented group of players. Fish123 was already one of the top teams in the world before donning the Liquid colors, and together, with our resources, we’ll be unstoppable.”

Valorant still has a long way to become a tier-one esport, with several tournaments still not breaking the 100k mark in viewership on Twitch. Early signs are encouraging with the esport attracting top talent from CSGO and Overwatch, benefitting massively from these players’ personalities and popularity as Valorant matures.

With Team Liquid now in the fold, there are very few major esports organizations that have not committed in some fashion to Riot’s FPS. Fnatic, NRG Esports, and a few others would be notable examples of teams that have not yet committed. These teams seem to be holding out for an announcement of an official league for Valortant, and at present, have too many other financial commitments to get into a brand-new game that has yet to build up its viewership.

However, these early teams could be rewarded with experienced rosters that have a rapport with their management, when Riot does decide to pull the trigger on their plans for an official league. While Riot has not hinted the eventual plan, one would be naive to believe they will not attempt to replicate the success they’ve seen in League of Legends’ various franchised leagues in this new game, especially with the franchise fees they’ve been able to collect from teams.

A franchised league would probably do wonders for the Valorant scene, which has become a facsimile of what the early League of Legends and even CSGO scenes looked like – lots of third-party events very little direct involvement from Riot. That was certainly the case for LoL, which had events hosted by a combination of MLG, ESL, and others before bringing the program in-house for their teams to run. Now that Riot has a framework in place replicating that framework would only be a matter of time and hiring the right people able to produce a similar show.