NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #2 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold has signed Brock "brawk" Somerhalder and new head coach Michael "Mikes" Hockom ahead of Americas Stage 1. They join as replacements to Andrew "Verno" Maust and Malkolm "bonkar" Rench, who were benched following NRG's early exit at Kickoff. This roster change comes only four months after the inital roster was announced.

With the additions of bonkar, Verno, and mada to NRG, they were looking like a threat coming into the 2025 season. In the two off-season tournaments they played in, they took home first place. At the SEN City Classic, NRG handedly took care of their North American rivals, while at the SOOP Valorant League, they swept through tough international competition. The grand finals saw them take down the Pacific powerhouse Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) yoman Chae Young-moon (채영문) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) in a 3-0 stomp, with Verno putting up an absurd 1.68 rating across the series.

Unfortunately, NRG's off-season success failed to translate into Kickoff. In their opening match, they endured a shocking 2-0 loss to Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #7 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong mitch Mitch Semago neT Michael Bernet OXY Francis Hoang , immediately sending one of the tournament favorites into the lower bracket. They rebounded with a close win over 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #8 zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk , but were eliminated by KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #2 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro in the following match.

NRG taking the stage in their match against KRU. This iteration of NRG's roster makes their final appearance on stage (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games).

jamie, the general manager of NRG, stated that despite their perceived success in the offseason, the roster "ultimately failed in terms of team cohesion." The change was deemed necessary, as "continuing with the current 5 players/head coach was not an option."

Their new addition, brawk, has been playing in NA challengers under the Moist brand for the past two years. With brawk, Moist has consistently been a top team in the league, but has fallen just short of reaching Ascension. In both 2023 and 2024, they reached the upper bracket final, needing only one more win to qualify, but lost out both times to finish third. Now joining NRG, brawk will make his debut in the partnership leagues, as well as rejoin his former Moist x Shopify Moist x Shopify Inactive Pa1nt Amarri Peak Spaz Adam Laamoumi Paincakes Jake Hass BcJ Brendan Jensen brawk Brock Somerhalder teammate mada .

Mikes was a longstanding coach for 100 Thieves, being with the team from the beginning of 2022 to the end of 2024. For two of those three years, he was an assistant coach, working behind seangares in 2022 and Zikz in 2024. The 2023 season was Mike's only time as the head coach for 100 Thieves, and was the roughest in the organization's history. It stands as the only season where 100 Thieves did not qualify for an international event, and also features their infamous loss to MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #4 artzin Arthur Araujo xenom Eduardo Soeiro cortezia Gabriel Cortez nzr Agustin Ibarra aspas Erick Santos that put them out of playoff contention. Outside 100 Thieves, Mikes coached the FiNESSE -led Envy Envy Inactive Marved Jimmy Nguyen Victor Victor Wong crashies Austin Roberts FiNESSE Pujan Mehta yay Jaccob Whiteaker team through their second place campaign at Masters Berlin back in 2021. He will now take the reins of the FNS led NRG through the rest of the 2025 season.

NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #2 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold are now:

  • Pujan "FiNESSE" Mehta
  • Sam "s0m" Oh
  • Brock "brawk" Somerhalder
  • Adam "mada" Pampuch
  • Ethan "Ethan" Arnold
  • Zachary "Ry" Parr (Manager)
  • Joseph "Strong" Edwards (Assistant coach)
  • Michael "Mikes" Hockom (Head coach)