Since Riot Games announced its new first-person shooter game, VALORANT, players from other eSports are looking for a fresh breath of life. As of late, the North American scene of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, as well as the Overwatch League, has suffered from pros leaving the game. Multiple reports surfaced that NRG Esports are in talks with CS pros Damien “Daps” Steele and Sam “s0m” Oh to join their roster. Retired coach Chet “Chet” Singh has also been tapped for a position.
Both s0m and Daps played under Gen.G alongside the likes of autimatic and BnTeT. The former is still playing with the organization and is signed to a contract since December of last year. The latter pro has left Gen.G earlier this month with supposed lost faith with the team.
We're looking strong as we start the 2nd half of Nuke up 10:5! Tune in to see if we can close out map 2 and get the 2-0 👊
📺: https://t.co/yvfeRABgMi pic.twitter.com/jVP2x0DiUL
— Gen.G Esports (@GenG) September 22, 2020
The Canadian pro, Steele, has been competing in CS since late 2012 and joined respectable teams such as Team Liquid, OpTic Gaming, NRG Esports, and Cloud9. He, autimatic, and koosta was later acquired by Gen.G from C9 to build a team around them. 18-year old prodigy, Oh, has made a name for himself through his streams and insane aim. He under the uniform of Team Envy before joining his current team.
Chet, on the other hand, announced his retirement from the Valve FPS game this week to join a VALORANT team as a coach. He has been in the pro scene in the last four years and has mentored OpTic Gaming, NRG Esports Evil Geniuses, and 100 Thieves.
As stated, daps and Chet have a history playing NRG already, where they helped the organization win tournaments such as the cs_summit 3 and IEM Shanghai.
After distinguished players, including nitr0 and steel, have left CS for Riot’s game, daps have stood out in NA with his experience and in-game leadership. Perhaps following the other players’ footsteps, the 27-year old rifler announced that he is open to other FPS games where his expertise can be utilized. “I can potentially find something I believe in again, and they will do better if they can find an IGL that has faith in the project that I once had,” the eight-year CS veteran tweets.
To the surprise of the community, s0m’s name was an odd one to be joining a different game. The young pro has not shown any unhappiness with Valve’s competitions during this pandemic. He and the rest of Gen.G have won DreamHack Open Anaheim and ESL One: Road to Rio – North America.
