An air of change is blowing over Alter Ego (AE). Four out of its five players just joined the organization in October 2021 and the organization is looking at new beginnings. After coming third in the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT): Stage 3 Playoffs in Southeast Asia, the team saw multiple players transfer over to other organizations with Jonathan "naTz" Adiputra being the only player left from the original roster.
With the year coming to a close and Valorant’s new 2022 competitive season set to kick off in a matter of weeks, Alter Ego found itself in a predicament. It had to build a roster that would be able to compete against the best in not just Southeast Asia, but at a global level. Alter Ego coach Andi "Sleepy" Andana Bangasawan realized that the roster needed players who are equally skilled as its former players but with more potential. He fulfilled his search and helped sign four new players who are set to prove themselves in the new and revamped Alter Ego roster. Sleepy tells AFK Gaming that the new players “checked all those boxes” at the time of signing and he is confident about the team’s future.
Rebuilding the Alter Ego roster
After falling short at the VCT Stage 3 SEA Playoffs, Sleepy took the decision to sign the former MORPH team squad of Lastiko "Moji" Reyanick, Axel "huliolio" Julio, Bryan "Kush" Setiawan and Delbert "Del.B" Tanoto. The four new Alter Ego members along with naTz and his experience are looking to conquer Southeast Asia as the new and improved Alter Ego.
Sleepy believes that the current roster has a bright atmosphere, where everyone contributes evenly to discussions and problem solving, whether inside or outside the game. “They’ve shown a huge interest in improving as individuals and as a team, and that’s what gave me the optimism that they can achieve great things together as a team.”
The new roster has been performing well with players slowly getting used to each others’ playstyles. Out of all the players in the roster, Sleepy feels that deLb is the x-factor on the current team. “Since joining AE, he’s become such a monster equal to the best of duelists here in APAC (Asia-Pacific),” he added.
Sleepy's insight stands strong as deLb is currently among the top 10 players at The Esports Club Showdown event in which Alter Ego is participating. He has been one of the most consistent players in the event.
But individual successes does not make a team and Sleepy believes that he is impressed by how fast the players have synergized with each other, which has created a conducive environment to excel as a team.
Preparing for competition
The Esports Club (TEC) is currently hosting events that pit South Asian (SA) teams against South East Asian (SEA) teams. Alter Ego has managed to take on the challenge and defeated fan-favorite South Asian team Global Esports (GE) at the upper-bracket quarter-finals. Ascent and Haven were highly competitive maps but AE stomped GE 13-3 on Breeze. Hard work and regular practice are ingrained into the Alter Ego roster. When preparing for specific events, Sleepy says that the roster had a couple of scrims with South Asian teams and drew their conclusions and mindset of playing against them from them.
Sleepy feels that there is still a noticeable gap between South Asia and Southeast Asia. With two teams (Global Esports and Velocity Gaming) dominating the scene in South Asia, he thinks that there just isn’t enough competition in the region to keep up with Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia, on the other hand, possesses much tougher competition and have several competitive teams that have finished at the top in SEA’s Valorant Champions Tour events, including the likes of Bren Esports and X10 Esports. More recently, Full Sense, a team that had stayed under the radar for the vast majority of 2021 came up top and won the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Asia Pacific (APAC) Last Chance Qualifiers (LCQ).
In South Asia’s defence, the region had to rely on competing in third-party tournaments with its future in Riot’s official circuit always being under doubt. It officially only got added to the Valorant Champions Tour in Stage 3 with the APAC Last Chance Qualifier. If Year 2 of the Valorant Champions Tour can be more inclusive with additional regions, we may see the competition levels in South Asia improve.
Sleepy thinks that there is a lack of involvement of South Asian teams. “It’s a shame because we know they can play well. I think it’s just about providing them with more opportunities and I can see South Asia becoming a VALORANT powerhouse in the near future,” he added.
On the future of Valorant
Valorant’s first-ever competitive season is coming to a close with the flagship Valorant Champions event. Sixteen teams will be competing in the upcoming event with just one team walking out as this year’s world champions. But beyond the hype and glory, Valorant has established itself as an esport that wants to stay for years, and its longevity can only be ascertained if it meets the expectations of the teams and the communities that make the esport what it is.
“I’m excited for 2022. We’ve set the stage with amazing teams and players as the casts, and I can’t wait to see how these teams and players are gonna incorporate even more depth in their plays. I’m also hoping for regions like South Asia to be more involved and be provided more opportunities to compete at the International stage. That will elevate their competitive level and will surely bring more interesting stuff to the VALORANT scene as a whole,” he said.
If Riot can offer its competitive platform to regions that do not receive much recognition, it can make 2022 an even more interesting competitive season and improve Valorant esports as a whole.
While all of Riot’s flagship Valorant events have been very successful and showcase the highest-tier of play, there is a relative lack of community flair that is usually showcased by third-party events. Tournament organizers like The Esports Club (TEC) are looking to change that, by taking steps in the right direction, through events like the TEC Showdown.
Sleepy feels that by uniting regions through events like Showdown “we get more inclusive, we’ll be mixing more playstyles, metas, and approaches to the game and it will no doubt be a good formula to raise the level of Asian VALORANT.”
It also important to note some of the problems that online international events face at the moment. Latency problems and infrastructural differences do not exactly offer an even playing field between two teams competing from different countries halfway across the globe. Sleepy wants more LAN events that unite players from different countries and regions. But with the world still struggling with the ongoing pandemic, it might be a while until we go back to the days of regular LAN events.
Looking back at Alter Ego's first year in Competitive Valorant
Alter Ego exploded onto the Southeast Asian Valorant scene with a second-place finish at Valorant First Strike Indonesia followed up by a win at AOC Masters 2020. After the announcement of the Valorant Champions Tour, Alter Ego qualified for all three Challengers events in Stage 1,2, and 3 but fell short of qualifying for Champions.
The toughest competition so far for the team was Global Esports according to Sleepy. “They’ve been farming experience and grinding non-stop leading to LCQ and I have no doubt that they’ll improve even further over time."
With a new squad and 2022 just around the corner, Sleepy is ready to take on new challenges next season and conquer the Asian Valorant scene with Alter Ego.
