VCT Americas Ascension-winning duelist joins Leviatán in surprising new role

Ian “tex” Botsch has officially signed with Leviatán today, moving to the Sentinel role to complete a potential five-man roster for the South American team.

Not only does this mark Leviatán’s second big move of the offseason, but the star now joins reigning VCT Americas MVP aspas on the roster only a day after his own reveal. Originally, reports suggested tex could be competing with aspas for the duelist role, but instead, he’ll be playing more Chamber than Jett on the Sentinel role.

For tex, he rose to prominence as a duelist, most notably for NRG from early 2021 to the end of the season 2022. With that roster, his best performances were in Stage Two Challengers in 2022, where NRG finished fourth.

Tex shone in two ways in that stretch of success: with his ability to get first pick and his headshot percentage. He was second in both of categories across Stage Two Challengers, with the only better player for getting first picks being Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, according to vlr.gg.

For context, that was when plenty of duelists had to move from the traditional Jett and Raze agents to Chamber. Tex was able to flex onto that VALORANT agent easier than most but still hadn’t managed to truly stand out.

That didn’t happen until he joined The Guard in 2023, filling the duelist role left by Sayaplayer. In that system, alongside some of the Americas’ best tier-two talent, tex stepped up. He kept up his ability to get the first kill while improving in every other stat and showing off how he could play Jett and Raze at high levels.

When The Guard won Ascension, it seemed like tex was staying on with the team he earned a franchising slot with. That was until The Guard were denied that spot, forcing the teammates to become free agents and circulate plenty of outrage for fans.

Every ex-Guard player found a slot in VCT Americas with G2 Esports, except tex; G2 didn’t sign him alongside his former squadmates. Alone, tex tweeted out his free agency, mentioning his ability to play Sentinel as well as Duelist.

Leviatán took the chance, squeezing a star into an already stacked roster. KiNgg and aspas were already a heavy firepower duo, and now tex comes in as a former duelist who won Ascension. The only question now will be if his time on Chamber and small moments on Sage have truly prepared him for a full-blown swapped role.

Either way, when it comes to pure shooters, Leviatán has built itself a multinational American roster who, on paper, a good chance to outperform their previous years.