Barce Joins DetonatioN Gaming

Player and a streamer of ZETA DIVISION, Ryo “barce “Takebayashi, has left his previous team and has joined DetonatioN Gaming. The news surfaced on Monday, April 26, on DetonatioN FocusMe social media.

Barce was announced as the newest member of DetonatioN Gaming on Monday. The 25-year-old Valorant pro player joins the Japanese team as the seventh member of the active roster and the second signing of April after DetonatioN added Shoki “Pepper” Banjo a day prior.

The recent signing joins DetonatioN Gaming as one o the most experienced players on the new-look Japanese Valorant roster. He started his Valorant career in April 2020 and has been an active player until December 2021, when he transitioned to streaming.

In his first three months of entering the professional Valorant scene, barce has achieved immense success as a member of Absolute JUPITER.

He dominated the Japanese Valorant scene with the team, winning seven of the ten tournaments Absolute JUPITER attended by the end of the year.

And the team did not show any signs of slowing down early into the 2021 season. With Absolute JUPITER, barce won VCT 2021: Japan Stage 1 Challengers 1 and Challengers 2 and claimed silver from VCT 2021: Japan Stage 1 Masters.

Following a disappointing ending to the first VST Stage, Absolute JUPITER once again dominated the region and won the VCT 2021: Japan Stage 2 Challengers 1, but had to experience another painful finish of the stage – with a second-place finish at VCT 2021: Japan Stage 2 Challengers Finals.

But regardless of Absolute JUPITER failing to show up when it mattered the most, barce stood out with his individual performance, which earned him a contract with ZETA DIVISION in July 2021.

Barce joined ZETA DIVISION in July 2021 as one of the most exciting Japanese Valorant talents. Having played a huge role in Absolute JUPITER’s success throughout 2020 and early into 2021, ZETA DIVISION were hoping that adding barce would elevate the team to new heights.

And that’s exactly what happened. By adding barce, ZETA DIVISION quickly found success and won VCT 2021: Japan Stage 3 Challengers 1 and the VCT 2021: Japan Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs, earning a spot at the VCT 2021: Stage 3 Masters – Berlin.

However, while ZETA DIVISION proved to be a force to be reckoned with domestically, they proved no match for international competition in Berlin.

In the final Master event of the 2021 VCT season, ZETA DIVISION got placed in Group B alongside Team Envy, KRU Esports, and Keyd Stars, who all proved to be too strong for the Japanese squad.

Despite their best efforts, barce and co. finished the group stage in last place and crashed out of the tournament in 13-15th place.

This led ZETA DIVISION to completely rebuild its Valororant lineup in December when the organization let go of most of its players. Barce has remained with ZETA DIVISION and was not cut from his contract, albeit he has stepped down from the active lineup and transitioned to streaming.

Shortly after barce got benched from ZETA DIVISION in December 2021, he was seen competing in some lesser tournaments and show matches but has no official games on his record since December 23.

Throughout the next four months, barce has been focused solely on streaming but has now been given a chance to return to professional Valorant. He got picked up by DetonatioN Gaming, who are rebuilding its Valorant roster and have already made some substantial signings over the last few months.

Most notably, DetonatioN added Pepper, who joined the team yesterday. Berce is now the second big signing DetonatioN have made, with more likely to come in the next few days.