G2 sign roster for NA Challengers featuring Shahzam and Dapr

Despite not being selected into the International Leagues in either of the regions, G2 esports decided on retaining their foothold in Valorant but shifted focus to the North American Challenger leagues for the upcoming VCT 2023 season. In mid-October, they released all EMEA players from their contracts and shifted focus on rebuilding their roster which is primarily centered around former Sentinels players Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan and Michael "dapr" Gulino. Supporting them will be Erik "penny" Penny, Maxim "wippie" Shepelev and Francis "OXY" Hoang with Ian "Immi" Harding as the coach.

When Sentinels first set foot in the Valorant scene, ShahZam was hailed for having a significant impact on the roster’s performance with noteworthy wins during the inaugural VCT season. However, in recent times, his decisions during games have been subject to discussion as the entire team failed to produce substantial results during VCT 2022 with no LAN event participations or even a 3rd-4th position at the Challenger main events. Dapr was also a member of the same roster but he didn’t have the best year either in terms of individual performance.

Penny, wippie and the head coach are all former teammates from Version1 who were released as Free Agents. VCT 2022 did not bring good news to these players either as they were unable to qualify for the Stage 2 main event despite placing 5th-6th in the previous stage. They also participated in some regional tournaments including NSG 2022 Winter Championship - Finals but their attempts at winning the title were rendered futile as they fell to Reformed.

Both penny and wippie played a significant role on the team with the former ending the year with an average 1.14 rating on 234 ACS spotted mostly rocking Jett or Chamber, while the latter dabbled in Killjoy and Cypher too with a slightly lower KD of 1.03 and 203 ACS. Finally, OXY had been playing for orgless teams in regional tournaments to demonstrate his skills and eventually earn a spot in the limelight. He finished the year with 1.25 Rating and 261 ACS, but these statistics have been recorded over a much larger tournament pool compared to other players, a factor worth considering before pitting them against each other.

With this announcement, the G2 roster is as follows: