A few days ago, the LVL team announced their Valorant Clash 2 tournament on their Twitter account and asked their followers to tag the teams they would like to see at the event. As for the teams, they asked “why should you be invited?” and linked an application form.
When they announced the 16 teams that were invited, we hoped that we would see 2 of the Turkish teams, however only one of them managed to get an invitation.
During the days when almost all the invited teams were clear, the looking4org team, which was not on the list, did not wait long to react to it.
As esportimes.com, we reached out to looking4org crew for the questions everyone is thinking and wanted to hear them out. Erim ‘Mavera’ Şaşal, explained us the invitation process of the Valorant Clash 2 tournament and answered our questions on behalf of his teammates.
Did you reach out to LVL team about not getting an invitation? Was there any explanation about the situation?
You wouldn’t believe who wrote for us to them from Europe besides us, but we did not get a reply. They stated that they have more important criterias besides success. Briefly they said: “We know your success, it is obvious from the charts. But we are looking for better criteria than that, to whom the players reach is more important for us.” To sum up, not being connected to an agency, not having a deal with an organization yet or the not having too much followers on our social media sites like Twitter and Twitch, came before our success and overshadowed it.
We pulled some strings and tried to get attention from Twitter. Because in the previous tournament, the Bonk team also faced similar issues. Bonk played in the play-offs in the last Ignition series and after that oddly, they did not get an invitation for the next series, which we think they should have. As you know, Bonk has an important player such as Yacine who has played on FPL before, who has a crowd from Sweden. They reacted to this situation as a team and because of it, they had a lot of people who believed in them and supported them.
The people we trust: “Don’t, don’t draw attention”…
- We wanted to do the same but we got a lot of backlash from Turkey. We even got sayings like don’t draw attention from the people we trust and consult to. Of course, as the Turkish people, we love to sit on our couches and think that there is nothing to do when we face an unfair situation. But I am not a person like that, neither my teammates. We wanted to make a sound, get justice. There is a chart which is made by an independent company who gives points to every tournament and according to those points, we get a rank in the chart. We, as looking4org, are in the 6th place in the Europe league. We are not mad about the teams way below us on the chart got invited. However, I will not give names but especially 2-3 teams have changed their staff or have just established a short time ago. They did not participate even in a C-Tier tournament but managed to get invitation. This is the reason why we are looking for justice. Our reaction is towards these kinds of things, we are not saying anything to the teams that have played on Ignition series before.
Okay, about the organisation topic. As you know other than BBL, the Turkish team Sangal is arranging a team and even though it is not certain yet, names like mini, rip, Sasuke are being mentioned. Digital Athletics and fastPay Wildcats have just announced their new teams. We don’t hear you with any Turkish teams, and there is a perception of maybe your goal is an Europe organization. What do you say about this? What are your goals and demands?
- As for the organization, I am not really hopeful about Valorant Turkey for now. There is no investments. The esport teams in Turkey are waiting for Riot. It is said that the first steps for the league will be made after March of 2021. Of course the progress of Covid-19 is really important. The teams who are not ready at the end of the last quarter of 2020, will not be able to find any players when the league is ready. I don’t think that the organizations are aware of this fact.
- We don’t think that we will be able to make any agreements with Turkish organizations. Because of the exchange difference, the offers we get from Europe are really high that probably no Turkish organization will offer. Now after all, not enough investments are made to esport teams in Turkey, I really don’t think that they can reach the offers we get from other countries.
Basically, you are saying something similar to Xantares. He said; “We get a monthly payment of what our opponents spend on an evening dinner in Europe.”
- Yes, something like that. I mean, of course we are not expecting really high payments but the teams that reach to us are all known in Europe. Meaning that they can put us in to these tournaments. These are the teams that trust us, consider investing in us and constantly keep in touch with us.
Then, I am writing that you have a few offers on the table?
- Sure, we have more than two active offers.
I hope everything will be as you hope. pAura is appeared to be in Inferno’s crew, did he leave? Is he in Inferno only for this event? Can you enlighten us?
- As you know, Melih is also a player of Prodigy agency. It is one of the well-established esport agencies of France and even Europe. Since we did not get an invitation and there is no tournaments in schedule since 4th of September, he considered the offer from the agency. He will play in this event as stand-in. Melih is really talented and Prodigy is very well aware of that. He gets a lot of offers over the agency but in order not to leave us, he rejected all the offers until now. We already discussed this when we were establishing, if any of us gets an offer from a really good team and he really wants to join them, then the person will leave. We as a team want the best for each other. If a leave separation like this takes place, we will get another player who is compatible with us and move on, there will be no such thing as a break up.
Maybe you might have tried a different name other than looking4org? As you know, on the CS:GO side, the team with their new name as 9INE was playing with their own name and after their success, they made a deal with an organization.
Actually, we did not plan the name of the team, I just registered to Team Liquid Academy tournament as this, I am the one who put the name but I did not plan this team would carry one and get to some places. I completely wrote it like this because it just popped on to my mind. After we won $500 from that tournament, we decided as a team that “Guys I think we hit the jackpot, let’s not give up. Continue with this name.” after a short time, we became the first team in Turkey who registered their crew to Actually, there were 9 teams all from Europe and we became the 10th team. After that, we were going to make a brand, even the logo was ready but with the opinions that we got from others, we decided not to change our name. At the end, when you say looking4org in Valorant Europe scene, we are the first one to come up to mind. We created a brand without noticing. There are a lot of teams like looking4org or similar in other games but we are the unforgettable ones in Valorant.
Then, I will not take any more of your time since the training time is coming. Is there anything you would like to add?
- Thank you for listening and taking time to be with us. I hope you reach the success you are aiming for.
As Esport Times, we had the chance to meet and listen to Erim. I hope they manage to get a deal with an organization suitable for them and represent our country in the best way. We listened to looking4org about not getting an invitation and shared it with you, and we are still trying to reach to LVL team. You can be sure that we will edit the article and add when they make a statement. Keep on following, so long!
