The Americas VALORANT Players Association revealed its six-member Executive Committee and 22 team representatives for 2023 on May 15.
The players association was initially announced in December 2022 by ex-TSM coach, Taylor “tailored” Broomall, with the aim of protecting the rights of professional players in the Americas region while working with Riot Games to improve the esport for the players.
The association is financially independent of Riot and is instead provided direct support by the League of Legends LCS Players Association.
Related: ‘No viewership, no support, no future’: LCS Players Association responds to Riot’s NACL plan
Six months onwards, the AVPA has made a major step by electing the organization’s leadership which included ex-Cloud9 and current Shopify Rebellion player, Anthony “vanity” Malaspina, becoming the association’s president.
Alongside vanity will be four vice presidents—Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro from LOUD, Joshua “steel” Nissan from Disguised, Murillo “murizzz” Tuchtenhagen from MIBR, and Melanie “meL” Capone from Version1. The Executive Committee is completed with the treasurer, Turtle Troop’s Will “dazzLe” Loafman.
Between these six members, each part of the wider America’s VALORANT region is represented with players hailing from Brazil, America, Argentina, and Canada, as well as competitors in VCT Americas, NA Challengers, and Game Changers all included.
As well as the elected leadership, the Players Association also announced which players will be representing each of the 22 involved teams, 10 from VCT Americas, and 12 from NA Challengers. They are listed below.
- LOUD – Saadhak
- MIBR – murizzz
- 100 Thieves – Brenden “stellar” McGrath
- Cloud9 – Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro
- Evil Geniuses – Corbin “C0M” Lee
- FURIA Esports – Vitor “kon4n” Hugo
- KRÜ Esports – Santiago “Daveeys” Ruiz
- Leviatán – Roberto “Mazino” Bugueño
- NRG – Pujan “FNS” Mehta
- Sentinels – Tyson “TenZ” Ngo
- Disguised – steel
- Shopify Rebellion – vanity
- M80 – Mouhamed “johnqt” Ouarid
- G2 Esports – Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan
- The Guard – Jacob “valyn” Batio
- Oxygen Esports – Mitch “mitch” Semago
- TSM – Anthony “gMd” Guimond
- Moist Moguls – Alex “aproto” Protopapas
- FaZe Clan – Kevin “poised” Ngo
- Turtle Troop – Matthew “Wedid” Suchan
- MAD Lions – Justin “Trick” Sears
- OREsports – Jonard “Jonaaa6” Penaflor
Now with the formal setup of the VALORANT Players Association, the Americas teams will be able to raise concerns around the esport above just the team level, with the AVPA previously meeting with Riot on a bi-weekly basis to discuss policy.
The AVPA announced that new initiatives to help players will be unveiled in the coming weeks. This is just in time for the start of what for many teams will be an extended off-season, with the VCT Americas League ending on May 28 and the NA Challengers Playoffs concluding on June 10.
