NRG s0m talks retirement, weighing the positives and negative of playing pro, and “going out with a bang” for his bestie FNS

It might have felt like forever since NRG had won a game, but after two weeks of losses, Sam "s0m" Oh and the boys were finally able to take a series—and it came at the perfect time. The team locked in against Leviatán, beat them by a scoreline of 2-0, and secured their spot in the playoffs for VCT 2025 - Americas Stage 1, keeping their VCT 2025 - Masters Toronto 2025 dreams alive.

S0m sat down with THESPIKE.GG after their game, and spoke about what NRG has been working on for the playoffs and beyond, his thoughts on retirement and weighing out the pros and cons of esports life, and his plans to “go out with a bang” for Pujan "FNS" Mehta, who is planning to retire from pro play at the end of 2025.

Staying on the same page

When asked about what had been going wrong over the past two weeks, s0m said that NRG fell into a slump after week one where players couldn’t get on the same page communication-wise. It added a whole other layer of difficulteies that prevented them from executing their gameplans, leading to disappointing performances through week three and four.

Every team like goes through slumps, obviously—with a couple exceptions—but I just genuinely think that after the Cloud9 game, we just weren't on the same page. And it's not something that's so easily fixed. That's not something, like you rewatch the VOD and you [can say], ‘You're doing this wrong. Don't do it again,’ because as a team, I think we were doing a lot of micro stuff wrong. We're not communicating certain things, we're just not on the same page.

The 22-year-old did say that NRG played better in terms of the micro adjustments needed during the match, and that the communication was a lot better than weeks prior. A big part of the fix was that everyone just had to “know their role, and trust each other,” which seems simple enough but there are plenty of intricacies in building that trust both in and out of the game.

Last Dance?

There is a clear extra layer of expectations with NRG, now that FNS’ plans to retire after 2025 have been made public. The team has instilled a mentality where they must “go out with a bang” for FNS’ final year, similar to a Last Dance à la Michael Jordan.

He also spoke about the possible narrative about people thinking that this could be a “throwaway year,” but s0m says he can speak for everyone on the team when he says this is the opposite of what the team wants. Every player is so close to one another, and they all want to make this a memorable last year for their beloved in-game leader.

Speaking of his own career, s0m said that nothing has been set in stone just yet. However, this past year has helped him visualize the pros and cons of playing professional esports a bit more. For example, during the past few weeks, one huge con that has stuck in his mind is the cacophony of criticisms and noise.

“I think the biggest con for me is, especially after going through this losing phase, is that there's a lot of opinions, man,” He said with a laugh. “There’s a lot, but I'm not saying that it's not granted. We are on paper, like one of the better and hyped up teams. So when you do have like a start to a split like this, it's granted that it's going to happen. But like you said, with pros and cons, that's like a pretty big con as opposed to like, if I was streaming, like if someone just makes fun of me in my chat, you just move on.”

Granted, the competitive fire still rages on within s0m, which is a huge positive. He has been playing like one of the best players in the region, and knows that winning on-stage gives him a rush that he won’t be able to find anywhere else. It’s a positive that he has rediscovered after coming back to competition after his hiatus from stage play, and is a factor that could affect is career decisions in the future. He won’t be making any decision on his possible retirement until the end of the year, he says, but he will be looking to stream again soon, possibly after Masters Toronto when they have a break.

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