Interview: How NRG Bonkar transformed the team into contenders

Heading into VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Valorant Champions Americas second seed, NRG, were seen as a team that could either be a contender for the championship or bomb out of the tournament in its entirety.

Throughout the VCT Americas 2025 season, NRG Esports rise to the top was one that took time and patience. After a strong offseason, NRG Esports struggled to regain that offseason success as they finished in 7th-8th place in both VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Kickoff and VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Stage 1. However, since VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Stage 2, NRG Esports have looked like a shell of their past selves as they now stand as the hope of North America heading into the VALORANT Champions Paris playoffs.

Their first test came against EMEA second seed GIANTX where NRG Esports displayed their dominance, holding GIANTX to a total of 7 rounds across two maps.

After the quick 2-0 series, NRG Esports head coach Malkolm "bonkar" Rench highlighted exactly what went right in that series.

“It was a good day. We had a lot of time to prep, and we have really taken our time with the prep,” Bonkar said. “We learned a lot from the EDward Gaming and DRX games, to be honest.”

Bring the NRG to Paris

VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Valorant Champions

NRG

2

X

0

GIANTX

Upper Bracket Quarter Final, Best of 3 - September 26, 2025 - 3:35PM

13

Haven

1

13

Lotus

6

NRG

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

brawk

1.61

291

35/13/11

+22

2.69

85.9%

176.8

13%

57%

4

3

mada

1.46

271

34/17/6

+17

2.00

85.0%

171.3

17%

86%

6

1

s0m

1.39

262

29/21/16

+8

1.38

93.8%

163.4

23%

50%

4

4

skuba

0.95

157

21/13/11

+8

1.62

84.0%

102.3

31%

33%

2

4

Ethan

0.84

140

15/16/14

-1

0.94

85.9%

92.0

23%

60%

3

2

GIANTX

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

GRUBINHO

0.99

191

24/29/7

-5

0.83

66.4%

118.3

36%

60%

6

4

Cloud

0.88

170

18/24/17

-6

0.75

80.5%

115.1

24%

40%

2

3

westside

0.68

161

20/27/3

-7

0.74

55.6%

117.3

36%

50%

3

3

Flickless

0.57

124

12/27/11

-15

0.44

64.7%

94.4

25%

50%

1

1

ara

0.15

62

6/27/2

-21

0.22

58.5%

41.5

29%

20%

2

8

NRG secured a spot in the VALORANT Champions Paris playoffs as the first seed by defeating Edward Gaming and DRX. However, despite their relatively clean exit out of the group, the Americas second seed found themselves in extremely close matches, which nudged Bonkar to tighten up the team’s flaws despite their 2-0 match record.

One of the things the team really focused on was practicing with the teams in Europe to gain a better scope of how to improve at VALORANT outside of the Americas region.

This aspect of being in another region to practice was something that Bonkar found extremely beneficial for the things he really wanted to work on with the team.

“There are so many teams to practice in EMEA,” Bonkar said. “We practice in a specific region all the time, so it's very good to prepare for official games. When you practice that region, there’s a lot of fighting and brawling all the time.”

NRG Esports spent most of their time practicing amongst VCT Americas teams, where they didn’t have as many opportunities to face some of the top international teams. Knowing this, a lot of the prep has been centered around boosting the mentality within the team.

“My goal is to always practice the mentality and bring the way we practice in officials,” Bonkar said. “I’m very high on practicing our mentality and the way that you practice.” Despite their strong start to VALORANT Champions Paris, Bonkar took the extra days off to help “tighten up” the structure within the team. This is why many days were spent running through the set protocols they had created throughout the year.

“We needed to tighten up a little bit and follow our set protocols better and just calm down and be on the same page. It was really about getting on the same page with those things.”

These maintenance days of gradually sharpening up as a team can be difficult to quantify without measurable goals. One of the things Bonkar does to counteract this is by creating a set of rules for the team to follow.

“We have overall rules, and we do them on specific maps. We have rules on specific sites and then we have protocols on all sides, all maps, and all sites,” Bonkar said. “And then we just run through those scenarios as many times.”

The rules for success for NRG

He went on to describe how these set rules and protocols provide the team with a firm base of identity in how they want to play. One of the biggest questions underneath such a detailed system is whether there would be room for creativity and freedom for the players.

“I want the guys to have that feeling that when they look to the left and they look to the right, they always know what their teammate is doing, no matter the scenario.”

This creativity and freedom is the exact reason why Bonkar provides the structure, because it allows players to blend freedom under a baseline of structure.

“The structure and rules provide players with an understanding of knowing where everybody will be on the map. As long as it is within these parameters, they are free to play the game however they want and do match plays.”

There are a lot of rules set for NRG in place that boil down to every minute detail of any situation on any map. As a result, NRG has created an organized system that follows a set game plan and “a box” to play within, something that he wishes he had when he was a pro Paladins player.

“It was something I always wanted my coaches to do for me. I couldn’t really do it when I was an IGL because it was a little bit too much,” Bonkar said. “When I got to Oxygen, it was something I really wanted to emphasize, and the feedback I got from it was that everyone liked it.”

Facing his former student, Verno

For two years, Bonkar stood as the head coach of Oxygen Esports, where he turned heads for working with some of North America’s top talents. One of them, Logan "skuba" Jenkins, is on NRG Esports’ journeying to VALORANT Champions with him. The other will be his next opponent in Andrew "Verno" Maust.

“I’m so proud of him,” Bonkar said. “I’m super happy and excited to play against him, even if I’m not on the server. It’s going to be super fun and I’m excited to see how it plays out.”

When Oxygen Esports departed VALORANT, both Bonkar and Verno joined NRG Esports ahead of the VCT 2025 season. Now, their journey will continue as rivals, where they are fighting for a spot in the Upper Bracket Final.

NRG Esports faces MIBR on September 28, 2025, right after the Fnatic and Paper Rex showdown.