Their quest for a VALORANT world championship may have fallen short at the final hurdle, but there is no question that the 2022 VCT year belonged to OpTic Gaming. They were the only team from NA to make all three international events and the only team in the world to finish top three at said events.
With the superstar performances from yay, the roleplaying from Marved, crashies, and Victor, and the leadership of the veteran shotcaller FNS, OpTic made a definitive case for being considered the best team of 2022. But OpTic did not acquire a partnership spot for the VCT 2023 leagues, leading to the team going their separate ways.
While there was a faint possibility that the team would stay together, it appears that the players are going to split up and seek new opportunities on their own. Will they all compete in the Americas league next year? Will any of them reunite on a new team together?
Here’s a full tracker for where members of the 2022 OpTic VALORANT roster are ending up before the start of the 2023 VCT season. More information will be added as it becomes available.
Yay
The former superstar of OpTic, one of the best Chamber players, and widely considered the best pure mechanical player in the world, Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker has officially joined Cloud9 for the 2023 season, as first reported by Dot Esports.
Yay will join Nathan “leaf” Orf, Erick “Xeppaa” Bach, and in-game leader Anthony “vanity” Malaspina, as well as fellow new addition Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro. The team will be coached by Matthew “mCe” Elmore, formerly of The Guard.
Despite OpTic’s loss in the grand finals, yay was a strong contender for MVP at Champions 2022, finishing in the very top tier of every major statistical category. He was a standout, superstar-level player virtually all year. Primarily a Chamber player, it’ll be interesting to see how his agent pool changes following pending nerfs to the powerful sentinel.
FNS, Crashies, Victor, and coach Chet
The core of the OpTic roster is expected to stay together and will reportedly sign with NRG for the VCT 2023 Americas season. NRG will field in-game leader FNS, initiator crashies, duelist Victor, and coach Chet. The rest of the NRG roster will reportedly include Sam “s0m” Oh, and former FPX player Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks.
NRG has moved Ethan, Hazed, and eeiu to restricted free agency, and has made tex an unrestricted free agent.
This article will be updated with the destinations of the other former OpTic players when that information becomes available. For all offseason moves concerning the Americas league, check out our free agent “rostermania” tracker.
Published: Oct 17, 2022 02:16 pm