Stewie2k participates in Challengers North America with The Nation

Last August, Jake Yip, better known as Stewie2k, expressed his desire to become professional on Valorant. Despite intensive training since then, he was not selected to join a VCT franchise team. Together with four other unstructured players, he formed a team called The Nation. Stewie2k, brax, Rossy, TiGG and Wardell are trying to qualify for the Challengers North America.

Stewie2k is a Counter Strike Global Offensive legend. During his career, he has represented a number of high-profile organisations, including that of Cloud9 or Team Liquid. After mixed results in 2022 under the Evil Genuises banner, Jake became a full-time streamer. On the live side, he continued to play his game of choice, but also opened up to Riot Games' FPS.

At that time, he said he wanted to transition to Valorant at all costs "Even if I miss the franchise, I will continue to stream, watch and study the game and then get selected. We'll give it a shot. We'll see how it goes." The mercato phase is now over and the former CS:GO player has not been selected for VCT after all.

Determined to be spotted by organisations for the coming seasons, he has put together a team with brax, Rossy, TiGG and Wardell. All four players have played on the Valorant Champions Tour in recent years. Brax has mainly represented T1, while Rossy and Wardell have played for TSM. TiGG has played in both editions of the VCT for Luminosity Gaming (now Shopify Rebellion).

This mix of players started the Open Qualifier for the Challengers with a great win against ODU Monarchs. They then came out victorious in their matches against StarlessGG, OTF, DMG and Dark Ratio. The adventure is off to a good start, but the road to the NA Challengers is still long!

If they keep up the momentum, and Disguised also continues to win, The Nation may have the opportunity to play the new Disguised Toast during the final. Before that, they still have to defeat The Silk Road and the winner of the match between OR Esports and BreakThru. To follow the matches, go to Valorant NA's Twitch channel.