British esports organization Excel has made significant changes to its VALORANT team.
The organization has mutually parted ways with former captain David “Davidp” Prins and rifler Morgan “B1GGY” Madour as a result of “the team not improving at a quick enough rate to compete at the highest level, which is where Excel wants to be,” according to an official statement. Excel acted quickly and signed Ruben “RUBINO” Villarroel from Heretics and former Fnatic player Muhammad “Moe40” Hariff for the upcoming VCT events.
RUBINO is a former CS:GO player who’s most well known for his stints with Dignitas, North, and Heroic. He officially transitioned to VALORANT in January 2021 after he was picked up by Heretics. He most notably helped the Spanish organization reach the grand finals of the VCT Europe Stage One Masters, where they were upset by Acend.
As for Moe40, he was a part of the SUMN FC roster that lost the First Strike Europe championship to Heretics in December 2020 and was poached by Fnatic in February 2021. The 20-year-old ended up getting benched in April following middling results at VCT Europe Stage One Challengers Two and Three.
“RUBINO brings a wealth of experience to the roster, having previously competed at the highest level in Counter-Strike and is a great personality to have in the team,” Excel’s co-founder and CGO Kieran Holmes-Darby said in the official announcement. “Moe is an incredibly talented player who has already accomplished a lot in VALORANT and we believe he still has room to grow with the experience around him in this roster.”
In addition to these two roster changes, Excel will transfer the in-game leading responsibilities over to Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer, who’s been a part of the lineup since March 2021 when the British organization entered VALORANT’s competitive scene. The 29-year-old had a successful career in CS:GO, leading LDLC and Team Envy to one Major championship each between 2014 and 2015. He transitioned to Riot Games’ FPS in May 2020 and played for a couple of non-sponsored teams and Giants Gaming before signing with Excel.
Excel believes Happy will thrive in this new role, given “his level of understanding of how to play the game and his ability to share his vast tournament winning experience with the team.”
The organization expects that this new lineup will be up to the task of challenging the best teams in Europe and hopes to win its first major VALORANT trophy in the “not too distant future.”
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