NRG say goodbye to thwifo

One of North America's partner teams, NRG announced that they have parted ways with Zander "thwifo" Kim, who was the 6th player of the team.

thwifo leaves NRG after a short 3-month stint

Starting his VALORANT career at XSET, thwifo later transferred to T1. Wearing the T1 jersey for 1 year, thwifo joined NRG Esports in December 2022 as the 6th player. After thwifo's transfer to NRG, the team only competed in VALORANT Champions Tour 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo in this short period. However, thwifo did not get a chance to take part in the tournament.

According to THESPIKE.GG data, the American player maintains a 1.07 Rating, 129.1 ADR, and a 1.13 KD. Although thwifo could not take part in any S-tier tournaments throughout his career, he is considered to be among the promising players in VALORANT.

Before the 2023 VALORANT competitive season began, NRG made big roster changes, keeping only Sam "s0m" Oh from its 2022 roster. Announcing the players in its new roster one by one throughout November, NRG formed the skeleton of its 2023 roster by signing Pujan "FNS" Mehta, Austin "crashies" Roberts, and Victor "Victor" Wong from VALORANT Champions 2022 finalists OpTic Gaming. Finally, NRG completed its 5-player roster by signing with former Fun Plus Phoenix player, 24-year-old Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks, who won the VCT 2022: Stage 2 Masters - Copenhagen.

NRG’s São Paulo Performance

NRG Esports was on a good path in VCT 2023 - LOCK//IN, starting the tournament with a 2:0 win against KOI Esports. The team's morale will have been boosted with the win against KOI Esports, as the team, which was paired with Giants Gaming in the last 16 round, also managed to defeat their opponent 2:1 with a great comeback. With these results, NRG, who advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament, was paired with LOUD, the VALORANT Champions 2022 Champion, who was seen as the toughest opponent of the event. Although NRG fought back against LOUD, they couldn't avoid being defeated 2:1 and waved goodbye to the tournament in the quarterfinals.

NRG will fight for the VCT 2023 - Masters Tokyo ticket at VCT 2023 - Americas League, which starts on April 1.

NRG's roster is now:

• Sam "s0m" Oh
• Pujan "FNS" Mehta
• Austin "crashies" Roberts
• Victor "Victor" Wong
• Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks

• Chet "Chet" Singh (Head Coach)