NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #3 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold have revealed their 2024 roster, which will include former Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #21 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le duo Max "Demon1" Mazanov and Ethan "Ethan" Arnold. Jimmy "Marved" Nguyen will round off the roster, reuniting with his teammates after more than a year apart.
After nearly conquering the world under the OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive banner, that team split and Marved spent part of 2023 on the sidelines. He was later picked up as Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid ' sixth man and, after a few weeks in that role, Sentinels decided to move him up to the starting roster during their mid-season shuffle. Marved's nine appearances for Sentinels translated into four wins across a rough campaign, in which the team finished seventh in the VCT Americas and fourth in the Americas LCQ.
By joining NRG, Marved reunites with former teammates Austin "crashies" Roberts and Victor "Victor" Wong, with whom he won Masters Reykjavik in 2022, and came two maps shy of winning Valorant Champions 2022.
The Ice Man is back. (Photo by Lance Skundrich/Riot Games)
Ethan and Demon1 are two of the five iconic players who rose meteorically throughout 2023. After a lackluster regular season in the Americas, Evil Geniuses only moved into the playoffs thanks to tiebreakers and later finished third. What followed were two of the most impressive campaigns in competitive Valorant, as EG pressed on to finish second at Masters Tokyo, defying all expectations, and then capping off the year with a world championship, clinching the title with wins over DRX DRX Korea Rank #5 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) , LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #2 dgzin Douglas Silva v1nny Vínicius Gonçalves pANcada Bryan Luna tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira , and Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #3 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov .
In the weeks since lifting the Valorant Champions 2023 trophy, Evil Geniuses have been mired in controversy. The organization has pulled the plug on most of its divisions, and the Valorant players have spent the offseason in dispute with the organization. According to Richard Lewis, Evil Geniuses informed the players in early September they would either have to accept a nearly 50% paycut to remain at the organization or explore outside offers.
Days later, it was revealed EG's management had turned down several buyout offers. Among those offers were NRG's, who put a $100,000 USD bid on Demon1 and Ethan.
Heading into 2024, coach Chet "Chet" Singh has confirmed Ethan will take over the IGLing responsibilites previously filled by Pujan "FiNESSE" Mehta, who was released from his contract with NRG earlier this year alongside longstanding member Sam "s0m" Oh. Both players are expected to remain inactive in 2024.
NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #3 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold ' 2024 lineup is: