Photo: Mandatory
Kameto is not the only influencer to have its esports team (Karmine Corp). While he clearly launched the trend, we can now cite the J.L. (JobLife Esports), Shaunz, DFG and Mister MV (Aegis) or ZeratoR (Mandatory) which is present in the French league of Valorant. The project can make people smile, especially with the tag LOL. But the team has real ambitions and during its presentation, we spoke in half words of a qualification for the main circuit (VCT).
For the moment, this goal still seems quite a long way off. In the French league, you had to finish first to participate in the promotion tournament. Mandatory finished first, but starting from the end… Not qualified for the playoffs, the team did not deserve but too often made equalizers to hope to aim higher. Even if the community pushed a lot behind the players by massively watching MDR matches on ZeratoR’s personal channel, it wasn’t enough. But for the next segment, the results may well be revised upwards. The structure presented two new recruitsand on paper it’s heavy.
A French champion and a former VCT player
The two new recruits are veterans of the CS:GO scene, but they especially distinguished themselves on the Valorant scene! Tony”Goaster“Richard is the reigning French champion, since he won the first segment with the Belgian structure Sector One. One could have imagined that the pack would keep all of its members to try to double the bet, but Mandatory must have found the right arguments to recover this quality element. During his presentation, he in any case indicated that the affective dimension had also counted. At MDR, he will find former teammates of LAST DANCE that he appreciates.
The other recruit is Alex “AKUMAAAAA“Lo Bello who will play the role of Sova. Without a team since February, he will return to competition with desire and enthusiasm. His experience could therefore prove invaluable, he knows the pressure and may allow MDR to turn ties into clear wins.
What ambitions for Mandatory?
For the moment there are still a lot of gray areas on the Valorant scene. Within the French league, the transfer window has not yet taken off. But this first announcement could speed things up and a priori, things should move a lot at Sector One and Team Vitality, at a minimum. It will therefore be necessary to wait to judge and accurately assess the forces involved. But by recruiting these two very good players, one thing is certain: Mandatory is not coming back to be 8th. A place in the playoffs must be the minimum objective of the team and we imagine that the title must also be in a corner of the heads of the leaders.
It is also not yet clear if there will soon be a new promotion tournament to access the VCT. Earlier this year, Riot Games talked about a European tournament between the different VRL at the end of the 2nd segment, a bit like the EUM on League of Legends. This tournament could represent another objective for Mandatory, even if the dream must surely be to access the VCT above all.