Tag: nrg

Marved Reportedly Set To Be Benched From NRG

After a terrible start to the year for the superteam NRG, reports from multiple credible sources say that the NA organisation is set to bench Masters winner Marved from their starting lineup.

After a stint on Sentinels last year, Marved joined back up with his previous OpTic core, Crashies and Victor alongside Champions winning duo, Demon1 and Ethan.

Despite this stacked roster, they have now failed to make both international events and lose out to many teams despite the amount of money being poured into the roster, they lost 3 games in Stage 1 which led to them getting eliminated from VCT Americas Play-offs for Stage 1.

The journalist, Alejandro Gomis, was also the first journalist that announced the departure of pANcada from Sentinels and the departure of Jakee from Cloud9.

With the track record of leaks, it can be trusted as very possible that Marved will be benched from the starting lineup, despite not being the worst player on that roster stats wise.

Possible Replacements

LOUD Less + Saadhak

With the recent reports of Less being removed from the starting lineup of LOUD, this could be the perfect opportunity to bring along his IGL and join the NRG side for a new super roster.

The thought behind this change would be-

Jett/Brimstone/Astra – Demon1

Raze/Flex – Victor

Omen/Second Initiator – Ethan

Sentinel – Less

Initiator – Saadhak

It could be time to break up the duo of Crashies and Victor for the LOUD duo. However, this situation seems unlikely because of the fact that despite rumours, there has been no conrete communication between NRG and LOUD on the situation of Less and Saadhak.

SEN pANcada

Ever since being dropped from Sentinels’ starting lineup for Zellsis, there has been no hope of pANcada returning to that roster.

There has been rumours of pANcada going to join MIBR or FURIA, however, in recent reports it has been announced that pANcada has refused the FURIA offer due to ‘health reasons’.

If the opportunity comes to pANcada, it could be plausible that he could replace Marved on NRG as the primary controller player which is the role that won LOUD the Champions title winning him the MVP of the event.

Sinatraa

This last option is the most unlikely option.

After having to take a 2 year stint away from competing due to allegations put on his character by his ex-girlfriend, he is now fully eligible to return to professional play and many pros agree that he has the talent and the skills to join back into tier 1, including FNS, Crashies and Marved himself.

However, the introduction of Sinatraa would make the roles slightly different for players like Victor who is the current flex player for the NRG squad. The roles would look like;

Jett/ Brim/ Astra – Demon1

Raze/ Initiator/ Cypher – Sinatraa

Omen/ Initator – Ethan

Viper/ Initiator – Crashies

Sentinel – Victor

This introduction would take Victor onto the perma sentinel role which could be avoided by signing a completely different player that would solve the role issues that they seem to have on the roster.

This split, Demon1 has played Raze, Jett and Brimstone where they realised that Demon1 should not be on the Raze as his fragging potential is much lower on a movement character with his lower sensitivity.

Victor has played Raze, Cypher, Killjoy and Brimstone which has caused more role issues for the squad.

Whilst Ethan has played 3 different roles whilst IGL’ing the team to a failure of a split which could cause a heavy burden onto the player.

NRG AND Sentinels Are OUT Of Masters Shanghai After Shocking Stage 1 Performances

The Masters Madrid winners and arguably the best team in the world, Sentinels, are out of contention for Masters Shanghai after failing to qualify for the play-offs in VCT Americas.

Dropping games to Evil Geniuses, Leviatan and LOUD mean that they were mathematically eliminated from play-offs as only the top three teams from their group made it through with G2 making it above them in round differential by just two rounds.

However, another team that has let the world down, is NRG. They go out of play-offs after not even qualifying for one international event so far after losing to Sentinels in VCT Americas kick-off and now bombing out of Stage 1 despite having, on paper, the best roster in the world, with the additions of Demon1 and Ethan who were from the world champions winning side Evil Geniuses and Demon1 being the most sought after player in the world.

Despite being two of the best players from that squad of 5 from last year, they were unable to defeat any of their former team mates this year which included an utterly embarrassing defeat to Leviatan where they only managed a total of 8 rounds across the two maps. Leviatan is now home to c0m who won the Champions title alongside Demon1 and Ethan.

On paper, Sentinels and NRG should have had near to no problems making it through to play offs with the compeition in their group being the 2023 worst team in Americas, KRU and the ”tier 2” Cloud9, who both majorly over performed and went 5-1 in their series whilst SEN and NRG went 3-3 shocking the world.

VCT Americas Kick-off start tonight with Cloud9 playing G2 Esports looking to knock each other out of play-offs in this one and done game.

Another knockout game could see LOUD dropping out of Master Shanghai contention with a tough game against 100Theives who already look a lot better than their kick-off form with Champions winning IGL, Boostio, transforming this roster after putting Cryo, onto the smokes role and allowing Asuna to take up the Raze as he used to do back in 2021.

These games will decide who will go on to face off against KRU Esports and Leviatan with both of those teams looking on form hoping for a spot in Masters Shanghai to Join Paper Rex, T1, GenG from the APAC side with the other regions yet to play off.

Leviatan DOMINATE NRG During Superweek

The ‘Super Team’ of VCT Americas, NRG, got humbled against Leviatan, after hyping up the team and their chances of winning it all, NRG are looking below par of what they are used to indivdually. Demon1 no longer is showing the firepower that he had last year on Evil Geniuses despite now being the centre of attention on the squad.

Leviatan, a super team in their own right, absolutely dominated NRG last night with NRG only allowed to take 8 rounds from 2 maps, an even more impressive and overwhelming victory than Sentinels against MIBR on Saturday. NRG having only played teams that you could call ‘not contenders’ and when they play world class teams they seem to crumble against Sentinels and now Leviatan.

Stats Courtesy of vlr.gg

NRG really had a shocking performance against the LATAM giants who just came off the back of a 2-0 win over Sentinels aswell.

Demon1, who was the MVP of VCT Champions 2023, dropped 13 kills across the two maps instead of dominating like he did last year. aspas, who has been called the GOAT of Valorant, dropped 34 kills and looked unbothered that he was striking down the MVP of Champions 2023.

NRG have started to create a reputation for themselves for being toxic and super confident in themselves despite not having the results to back it up. Victor, before the game said that it was going to be easy, and it ended up being somewhat the opposite and it seemed that Leviatan took control of map control, rotations and even NRG’s aim seemed off during the matchup.

Before the matchup, Demon1, said in an interview that

”I will take care of aspas”

Those words came back to bite him as the ended the match with 2 first kills and 15 first deaths across the two maps.

NRG now look ahead to their next game against MIBR which should be an easy game, and Leviatan look ahead to G2 Esports which seems straight forward after the results they got against Sentinels and NRG over the past 2 weeks.

NRG Crush LOUD 2-0 In Redemption Game Back in Form

After bowing out of VCT Kick-off, NRG with their superteam had to come back and make a statement out of their first opponents of the VCT Americas stage 1. Their first opponent ended up being LOUD, their cores long term rivals with the OPTIC and NRG core facing off against LOUD for years.

However, they came into this years game with a different roster and outlook with their primary caller, FNS, being replaced by Ethan, and their fire power, yay, being replaced by the best player of 2023, Demon1. This roster got eliminated in Kick-off by the eventual Masters Madrid winners, Sentinels and were quite underwhelming despite the potential that this team has on paper.

They came into the game with LOUD only getting days to practice after having several visa issues leaving all of their Brazilian players stuck in Ireland with Saadhak the only player in LA meaning that they definitely were not to their full potential as a roster and it showed with an abysmal showing on Sunset despite Less’ monster performance on Breeze.

There was also a debut of new comps for NRG with the new meta being Yoru/ Raze being used by teams across the world, they implemented this into their game and put Ethan on Yoru for Breeze and Demon1 debuted his Raze for the first time ever, topping the lobby in kills.

To become a top duelist this year, you HAVE to be able to play Raze at a high level shown by top duelists from Masters Madrid such as Zekken, t3xture and f0rsaken. Demon1 is still improving and despite his Raze utility not being up to the level of Zekken or Jinggg, his aim makes up for his lack of experience with him just clicking heads effortlessly.

Their next game is against FURIA on the 14th of April where they will look to become a 2-0 side in VCT Americas and show that they mean business this year.

Sentinels Advance To Play Offs After Over Ruling Performance in Play-ins

After 5 games Sentinels finally make it to the Play-offs for their spot at Masters Madrid after dominating the play-ins.

With a very easy and comfortable 2-0 over mibr, SEN only needed 1 map against long time rivals G2 Esports after they lost their game against mibr. All that was needed was 1 map in a 3 map matchup and they got it instantly winning the sunset 13-8 after being down 8-4 at the half.

Zekken and TenZ really showed up in these matches with both of them dropping over 70 kills across the 3 maps. TenZ, who has taken up the Omen role, has taken his own look on it AWP-ing and sometimes entry with the controller agent. Zekken is once again showing why he is a top 5 NA player with his ridiculous movement on Raze and his AWP-ing on Jett.

After dominating mibr 2-0, TenZ was full of confidence alongside the team as they were looking forward to a timeless classic matchup against G2 Esports with the newly re-vamped Sentinels roster, and johnqt transforming the team into something that is to be feared across the Americas league.

They cleared through the play-ins as expected and then once the draw was announced, fans were questioning the truth behind the ‘random’ draw that was done behind closed doors.

SEN could only play one of Evil Geniuses or NRG as they already lost to LOUD in groups. SEN fans were hoping for EG to be their matchup as NRG are looking hot fire this year with their new additions to the roster. However, all good comes to an end with SEN having to face off against this superteam in NRG on the 3rd of March 2023.

TenZ Puts Sentinels Ahead Of NRG For Their Qualification Chances at Masters Madrid

Sentinels controller player, TenZ, said in an interview recently that he believes NRG’s way of play is predictable and can be counter-strated to a point that they aren’t as impressive as everyone is making out online.

In an interview with Dryad, a caster and big personality in the LATAM VALORANT scene, he says that other than Sentinels he would say that LOUD or Leviatan have the highest chance to qualify for Masters Madrid. Then when asked about NRG he denies that they have a better chance than the teams named.

After the first week of games concluded, Sentinels were dropped down to the lower bracket where they defeated 100 Theives and await their next game against either LOUD or Leviatan for a place in the Kick-Off Playoffs for VCT Americas. Whereas NRG Dominated their first game against FURIA and are set to face a new Cloud9 roster for their spot in the playoffs.

If both Sentinels and NRG make it to play-offs there is a chance to see a battle between the two teams and to see Marved play against his old team mates with his new super team in the NRG roster with the well decorated ‘best player in the world’ Demon1.

They both play their next games on the weekend following the start of the VCT EMEA season kicking off in europe and the VCT Pacific concluding.

What To Expect From The First Game Of VCT 2024 And What To Expect From NRG

It’s no secret that NRG are favourites to make it to Masters Madrid out of the Americas League in spot 1 or spot 2 and due to their performance last year, they managed to avoid the group of death.

However, they did end up in group A alongside Cloud9, FURIA and MIBR who, in their respective ways, are mega teams as well.

The matchup between NRG and FURIA will be the first match of VCT in 2024 globally with the most popular league, The Americas, kicking off with the roster everyone is most hyped about.

After acquiring Demon1 and Ethan from Evil Geniuses, NRG formed a super team to try and gain the success that they were so close to achieving last season. With the addition of Marved from Sentinels, they look to be, on paper, the best team in the world.

However, fans aren’t quite convinced for good reasons since other teams in the league have played off season tournaments to showcase the skill and talent that they have. Most notably, Sentinels winning AfreecaTV against teams like Team Liquid, EDG, DRX and Paper Rex in December 2023.

NRG have yet to show anything even from scrims on how good they are and fans are going off of paper on how dominant NRG can be. The first VCT match of the year will be the first time anyone has seen this roster perform and criticism is coming from fans for Ethan’s first time IGL situation.

With NRG housing 5 powerhouses, the common conception of the match is going to be a 2-0 victory to the NA squad. However, don’t be too closed off to an upset with NRG going down to losers bracket since it is all unknown for this team. Going off of paper won’t always end with the correct result.

NRG Announce Their 2024 VCT Roster

NRG, after a long wait, announce their VCT Roster for the upcoming VCT season.

They have parted ways with s0m, FNS and ardiis, who have all respectively moved on from NRG with only ardiis comfirmed to be competing in the new season for NAVI in EMEA.

In replacement, they have signed Marved from Sentinels, and the champions winning duo, Demon1 and Ethan from Evil Geniuses.

This rounds out their roster as:

  • Victor
  • Crashies
  • Marved
  • Demon1
  • Ethan (IGL)
  • Chet (Coach)

With an overall disappointing end to their 2023 VCT season, they will be looking to come for it all this year with a roster of only international LAN winners in 2x Champions and 3x Masters winners.

There were questions on who will be IGLing the squad as there is no dead-set IGL with rumours of Marved taking up the role as he did for Sentinels for a brief time in 2023, but Ethan took to twitter to announce he will be IGLing the squad hopefully towards an international title this year.

For this upcoming season, it seems that it will be Heroes vs Villians between Sentinels and NRG with Sentinels looking to regain their ‘veteran GOAT‘ TenZ and NRG looking to steal it away from everyone with their new ‘King Of Hell‘ Demon1.