Complexity, Rise the latest qualifiers for Nerd Street’s VALORANT Summer Champs

Nerd Street Gamers’ Summer Championship qualifiers are officially underway as teams look to qualify in VALORANT, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Rainbow Six: Siege and Rocket League.

When August rolls around, the qualified teams in each game will have a chance to take home some of Nerd Street Gamers' biggest prizes of the year. Players and teams in North America can compete right now by entering NSG’s weekly and monthly tournaments to start accumulating points.

As tournaments are ongoing, some teams are already qualifying by becoming one of the top two teams in monthly qualifiers. In April, Renegades and Susquehanna Soniqs qualified, after the May Monthly, Complexity and Rise locked up spots to join them at Summer Champs.

Complexity qualify for Nerd Street Gamers’ Summer Championship

Most esports fans are familiar with the name Complexity. Founded in 2003 as Counter-Strike 1.6 clan, the org is one of the oldest in North America. Over the years, Complexity have entered and left plenty of esports, but the throughline has been CS. Now the org hopes to transition two decades of success into VALORANT.

In the new esport, that success hasn’t been easy to find. But after officially adding Joel “jcrueL” Cruel and Jacob “valyn” Batio in April, Complexity have put together a few nice performances despite being knocked out of both Challengers qualifiers by Gen.G.

Read more: How Gen.G’s Shawn escaped the McDonald’s drive through with VALORANT

Following Masters: Reykjavík, another round of Challengers will take place this summer before the next Masters event in September. Complexity are on a bit of a climb up the rankings already, but Summer Champs will be a big test for a team trying to break into the top tier.

Rise qualify for Nerd Street Gamers’ Summer Championship

Complexity got the win in the final, but Rise arguably had the more difficult path to qualification in the May Monthly. With a first-round matchup against Renegades, who have won five out of the eight Summer Champs qualifying events that have been held, Rise really had to ... rise to the occasion. (Sorry.)

Read more: Renegades’ Roy explains the value of tier two tournaments

Rise also have a solid history in esports with the org’s most notable team coming back during Call of Duty’s CWL era where a strong roster won multiple major championships before Rise were forced out of CoD esports after not receiving a spot in the Call of Duty League.

Like Complexity, the org is trying to make inroads in a difficult VALORANT ecosystem. To qualify for Summer Champs, Rise took down Renegades, eUnited and Noble without dropping a map. The run ended in the final to Complexity, but it represents the best string of results the org has seen to date. The $1,500 prize for second place is also their biggest purse yet. More importantly, Rise secured the team’s shot at the winner’s share of the Summer Champs prize pool in August.

Nerd Street Gamers’ next event for VALORANT Summer Championship

The monthlies are where qualifiers are crowned instantly, but the open events can still stack points, which provide another way into Summer Champs. So far six opens have taken place with six more to play. As top teams like Renegades, Soniqs, Complexity and Rise lock up automatic spots, suddenly the points leaderboard gets a lot more interesting.

Following these four qualifiers, a group of unsigned teams including Goofy Goobers, Ookers, Kooky Koalas and Sum 2 Prove round out the top 10. Although we want all VALORANT players signed by orgs, we all certainly love the fantastic names from the community. Check out these orgs, the unsigned teams and the rest battle it out on June 7 for Nerd Street Gamers’ Summer Championships Open Qualifier 7.

Lead image credit: Riot Games