NRG starts to restructure its VALORANT lineup

After its early elimination from the VALORANT Champions 2023 on August 13, NRG is in the spotlight of the NA community, as there was a lot of talk about changes in its lineup for the upcoming season. However, after several days of rumors, it is confirmed that the team started making changes, and two players are no longer part of the lineup.

We are talking specifically about Sam “s0m” Oh and Pujan “FNS” Mehta, both of whom are moving on to the role of content creators for NRG as of August 28, 2023. As a result, the team currently has only 3 active players in its lineup, and there will most likely be more changes.

In addition, it is also worth mentioning that, with the conclusion of VALORANT Champions 2023, the offseason has started, and many teams might be involved in different radical changes in their lineups.

S0m confirms he will be a NRG streamer

In the latest s0m stream, the player announced that he and FNS are not part of NRG’s lineup for next season. In addition, he also said that, for now, they are moving on to the organization’s content creator team, but they are open to any opportunity from another team for VCT 2024.

s0m confirms him and FNS are no longer on NRG’s starting Valorant roster, they will be full time streaming until an opportunity comes up pic.twitter. com/usRQKBV95n

— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) August 28, 2023

In the stream, s0m mentions that this information is not “a troll,” as both players are no longer part of the NRG lineup.

As we mentioned, this news comes after several days of rumors about possible changes the organization would make at the end of VALORANT Champions 2023. Also, with the offseason underway, many teams want to change their lineups, so both players will likely get a new home heading into 2024.

End of an era

With the move confirmed by s0m, this marks the end of an era; that is, it officially breaks up the core of players who started together at Team Envy, then went through OpTic Gaming, and finally came to NRG heading into this VCT 2023. While it is true that at the beginning of the season, there were several changes, 3 players from this core still led OpTic to win the Masters – Reykjavík and were very important in VALORANT Champions 2022.

Now that they are not in the NRG lineup, FNS and s0m will “form a streaming team,” but there is no confirmation if they will do it together or separately. In addition, there may also be some offer from another VCT team in NA, but it is also not a given that it would be an offer for the duo.

During 2023, both players showed great play, which significantly helped NRG qualify for the VALORANT Champions 2023. The team finished second in the VCT Americas League, and both players left everything in every match.

However, in the international tournaments (VCT LOCK//IN, Masters Tokyo, and VCT Champions 2023), the team was disappointed, as neither stepped up to the plate to right the team’s situation. Moreover, in the VCT Champions, they were eliminated by the Chinese team Bilibili Gaming, who were debuting at the highest competitive level.

Header: Colin Young-Wolff | Riot Games