NRG has already sorted out the leadership for its 2023 VALORANT lineup two days into the org’s “roster reveal week.”
After officially bringing home coach Chet Singh yesterday, the VCT Americas partnered team has now confirmed the reports and brought in the highly regarded in-game leader Pujan “FNS” Mehta, formerly of OpTic Gaming.
The 30-year-old FNS comes to NRG for the first time, having spent his entire VALORANT career with the Envy/OpTic group up until this point. According to sources that spoke to Dot Esports, he and Chet won’t be alone in joining the NRG camp by way of OpTic: longtime teammates Victor Wong and Austin “crashies” Robert are expected to be announced this week as well, in addition to Sam “s0m” Oh and former FPX player Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks.
All of Ardiis’ former FPX teammates officially signed with EMEA-partnered team Natus Vincere earlier in the day, with their official announcement alluding to ardiis’ imminent NRG arrival with the statement that he will “continue his career in a different region.” Ardiis will primarily take on the roles filled by superstar Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, who signed with Cloud9 last month.
FNS and the OpTic core are heading to NRG coming off a landmark year for the roster. Under OpTic, the team reached and finished top three at every single international event, which included a trophy at Masters ReykjavĂk and a grand finals run at Champions 2022.
The remainder of the NRG roster should be announced over the rest of the week. With C9, Sentinels, and 100T already having announced their rosters, NRG’s week-long announcement means that the only North American partnered team left to reveal their hand will be Evil Geniuses.
All 30 partnered teams from the three global leagues will compete in the VCT 2023 Kickoff event in Sao Paulo, Brazil in February.
