payen and Tork leave Built By Gamers

While Built By Gamers initially entered the VALORANT scene by signing a very promising Code7 roster, their recent disappointing finishes, failing to make it out of groups at either the PAX Arena VALORANT Invitational, the FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational, or, most recently, the PULSE Series, leave much to be desired. Changes were bound to be made.

The first was apparently not the team’s choice at all: Jake "Tork" Lepoff has stepped down from the team because he can no longer focus his full time on the game.

Tork had a 167 ACS over his time with the team, typically playing fraggers such as Sova or, occasionally, Raze. His step-down is undoubtedly a big loss to the team, as Nicolas "Nicolas" Aubin has only incredibly rarely played without him across their histories in Counter-Strike and Overwatch.

While no official announcement has been made regarding the status of Nate "PaYen" Lopez, Built By Gamers player Mike "pho" Panza has confirmed to THESPIKE.GG that he is also out of the team. In the PULSE Series, former Immortals and Mamba Mode Gaming player Joseph "Bjor" Bjorklund was on trial to replace him. Whether he will be made official or not remains to be seen, but he played quite well, with 236 ACS across the tournament on Killjoy.

In the coming weeks, the team will continue to trial Bjor, as well as new potential players to fill Tork’s spot. They will look to put together the perfect roster to regain their form from the early days of VALORANT.

With the departures of payen and Tork, Built By Gamers are:

Nicolas “Nicolas” Aubin Rob “rob-wiz” Kennedy Mike “pho” Panza Joseph “Bjor” Bjorklund (Trial)