NRG Valorant Succeeds Debut

The new star-studded North American Valorant roster, NRG, has completed its first official Valorant match. The squad defeated FURIA in the VCT Americas Kickoff with a score of 2-0.

NRG Esports currently possess arguably the most expensive Valorant roster, signing Evil Geniuses star players Max “Demon1” Mazanov and Ethan “Ethan” Arnold. The organization also retained Austin “crashies” Roberts and Victor “Victor” Wong, two world champions. The last piece of the puzzle was Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen, who was reunited with his former teammates from OpTic Gaming.

With such celebrated names in the roster, NRG quickly became the talk of the town the moment the roster was announced. Fans worldwide have immense expectations for this roster, as it has all the resources to become the most dominant team not only in the Americas region but also globally. 

After a long intermission between the last VCT event, the circuit is back in action with the VCT Kickoff. To start the event, the NRG roster played the first match against the Brazilian squad FURIA. Here’s how the match went.

Map 1 – Breeze

The first map of the series was FURIA’s map choice of Breeze. The South American roster could take the pistol round and convert the next. However, the heroics of the rookie of Demon1 quickly bloomed in the third round, where he pulled off a triple kill, stopping FURIA in their tracks.

FEAR THE DEMON pic.twitter.com/qUuPZp1Tov

— NRG (@NRGgg) February 16, 2024

There was a sudden shift in momentum, as NRG went on to win 8 out of the next ten rounds to post an 8-4 lead on their defensive side. Marved, in particular, displayed an impressive performance on his Viper in the first half.

FURIA won the second pistol and converted the anti-eco, but the script stayed the same, as NRG could win the first gun round of the second half. The two teams traded rounds back and forth, but NRG didn’t mind, as they had a four-round lead from earlier.

Ultimately, NRG took the win after a 13-10 score. It’s not the greatest performance against a lower-ranked team like FURIA, but we’ll let it slide since they’re just warming up. 

COMEBACK DENIED. pic.twitter.com/nc7BENPo1l

— NRG (@NRGgg) February 16, 2024

The most impactful NRG players on Breeze were Ethan and Victor, but FURIA’s Jett player, mwzera, had the highest ACS of 289. Unfortunately, havoc from FURIA finished the map with a KDA of 2/20/5.

Map 2 – Ascent

Now, the series has moved to NRG’s home ground, Ascent. The favorites won the first pistol round and converted the second. However, FURIA struck back with a string of rounds, taking the lead 6-3. Despite the map being heavily defense-sided, NRG could win the last three rounds of the half to keep the score tied.

For the third time in this series, FURIA took the pistol and second rounds to start the second half with a two-round advantage. NRG was done playing around and won seven straight rounds to win the series 13-8, giving FURIA no chance.

Undefeated in VCT 2024 pic.twitter.com/Gymgys7Mfl

— NRG (@NRGgg) February 17, 2024

Again, Ethan was the highest-rated player from the NRG roster, and also the overall MVP of Ascent. An excellent showing from the experienced player. 

With this victory, NRG’s Valorant roster passed the first test and debuted successfully despite losing three of four pistol rounds. The team advanced to the next stage, where they will play the winner of Cloud9 vs MIBR for a spot in the VCT Americas Kickoff Playoff Stage. 

Header: Twitter @NRGgg