Tokyo Verdy is no longer fielding a Rocket League roster. It was roumored for a day or two, and finally confirmed by RL Esports, that the roster: ReaLize, Tenhow and sigms – has elected to play under the orgless title of Senbei Strikers for the RLCS World Championships 2022.
It isn’t clear as of yet why this has happened, but it seems that the choice was on the side of the players, not that sponsorship was withdrawn or the team was dropped from the franchise side. Some Tweets point out this didn’t happen overnight, and that the organization and players parted ways a while ago. However, none of the info is currently confirmed, except a confirmation of the name change on the official RL Esports Twitter.
Strikers time!
Given that the team is due to start playing tomorrow in the World Championships, it would be extremely strange for their backers to suddenly cut ties, so it seems more likely to be a player issue or contractual conflict.
Some fans are already calling it.. Cloud9 is to blame and they have scooped yet another roster. This is most likely all banter, but given C9’s scoop ability, it’s never out of the realm of possibilities. AllTheRage is another potential org that may pick up the roster. They are currently recruiting players and staff.
Rocket League Esports @RLEsports · 16h
“Update: The Tokyo Verdy roster will be competing under the banner of Senbei Strikers for the Rocket League World Championship.”
Tokyo Verdy RL Esports History
The team does have a somewhat unusual roster history. Right from the start in 2020, they’ve never had a full 3-man roster listed; for a long time, their 3rd, Maru, was only listed as a stand-in, and their current 3rd, sigms, is listed as the same. From what is known, it looks like he took the jump with them, and it’s unclear if this uncertain roster situation may have caused some instability in the team.
The only thing that seems more certain is that it isn’t an issue of the roster working together or not getting results. They’ve usually finished 1st, sometimes 2nd in every APAC regional event for the large part of a year. They’re due to play against OpTic gaming in the first Swiss Round of the RLCS Worlds Wildcard stage, and coming in ranked in the top 16 is impressive for a team from the traditionally ‘minor regions’ of Rocket League.
We are all Senbei Strikers fans now.
