North American organization Oxygen Esports introduced its academy VALORANT lineup today with streamer Yassin “Reduxx” Aboulalazm converted to the roster.
With 14-year old Reduxx at the helm, the youngster will be joined by the rest of the “ex-FLICKBAITERS” roster. Leandro “Virtyy” Moreno, James “Nurfed” McFadden, Rustun Lusk, and Andrew “Verno” Maust have signed with the organization alongside coach Alan “wrap” Shen.
The ex-FLICKBAITERS team have played at the semi-professional level but are yet to compete in the VALORANT Champions Tour. The roster recently competed in the Nerd Street Gamers Winter Championship – Open 15, which concluded yesterday. Ex-FLICKBAITERS finished in second place while Built by Gamers Academy were the victors.
“With just little practice you can see we have pretty decent results with taking a map off LG and qualifying for the NSG $25k upcoming in early February,” Reduxx told Dot Esports. “With practice, offline time, etc., I personally expect great things from this team in the foreseeable future.”
Many professional teams did not compete in the tournament, however, since the VCT Challengers One open qualifier began yesterday. There weren’t any upsets on day one but several teams could be sent home tonight once the lower bracket begins.
Ex-FLICKBAITERS finished in second place after losing to Built by Gamers Academy in the grand final. Fourteen-year-old Reduxx, who is unable to compete in the VCT because of a minimum age requirement of 16, had the highest average combat score and highest average damage per round of all players in the finals.
Oxygen Esports has high expectations for the young roster. “While Reduxx has been with OXG since inception, we are thrilled to welcome our newest members as they chart their course to being the best academy team in North America this year and aim to become VCT champions in the future,” the organization said in a statement.
Update Jan. 28 2:14pm CT: This article has been updated to include a statement from Reduxx.
