Marved plans to take a break from VALORANT

OpTic Gaming’s VALORANT star Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen isn’t ready to join a VCT partner team just yet.

Marved’s future has been up in the air after OpTic failed to secure a spot in the partnership program in September. In a recent stream, the 22-year-old said he received offers from many teams, but he’s not planning to move to Los Angeles right now—the city where the VALORANT Americas league will be held. The OpTic player wants to rest after an “exhausting” year and solve some personal matters at his home.

“I want to stay at home, I don’t want to move to LA yet, not quite yet,” Marved said. “I’ve got stuff I’ve got to do and take care of at home. I have obligations. What you guys don’t get is that it was kind of exhausting last year. I played a lot of games. For franchising, you have to move to Los Angeles, and it’s not the time for me to do it right now. I’m still young.”

There’s an automatic reply message set on Marved’s stream that triggers when viewers ask for his next steps in professional VALORANT. In the message, the OpTic star mentions he’s been going through burnout for a while.

“With feelings of being burnt out for a while, my current life situation with family, friends, and loved ones, and also with how much traveling needs to be done, I have decided as of right now to take a break,” Marved’s automatic reply message reads. “That does not mean I am done.”

While Marved’s future in VALORANT remains unclear, his former superstar teammate Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker has joined Cloud9, and the quartet of Pujan “FNS” Mehta, Victor Wong, Austin “crashies” Roberts, and coach Chet Singh is close to signing with NRG, according to Dot Esports.