Team Envy Transfer Their Valorant Roster to OpTic Gaming
Team Envy’s Valorant team has officially transferred over to OpTic Gaming. Nothing has changed for the current Valorant roster except that the team will now be competing in the VCT: NA Challengers 1 under the banner of Optic Gaming.
This move makes more sense if you were familiar with the merger between the two companies that happened in November of last year. Initially, the biggest focus of the merger was on the Call of Duty esports, where the OpTic Texas powerhouse was created. With that aspect already in check, it seems OpTic and Envy decided to switch their attention to Valorant next.
The New OpTic Roster
The OpTic Gaming lineup is actually the same exact lineup of Team Envy.
Pujan “FNS” Mehta is leading the team, accompanied by two other original Envy members, Victor “Victor” Wong and Austin “crashies” Roberts. The three players were all part of the 2020 Envy lineup and represent the core of the team.
And then there’s Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker and Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen.
Yay joined Envy from Andbox in August last year and has been with them ever since. As for Marved, his situation is rather interesting. Despite joining in late June of last year, his status is still considered to be “on loan”.
Originally, FaZe loaned Marved to Envy in order to replace kaboose who was benched. We’ll see whether OpTic Gaming and FaZe will finally decide to offer him a permanent spot or if they’ll return him to FaZe once the loan period is over.
Stronger Together
This recent change should hopefully bear fruit for both organisations. Given how competitive Valorant Champions Tour has been, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve and be on top of the game in order to not fall behind. And that requires a lot of resources.
Envy transferring their Valorant team to OpTic Gaming also makes a lot of sense from a more general standpoint. They already united under one banner in Call of Duty and that has worked wonders with OpTic Texas. It’s only natural to see the same happen in Valorant.
By combining forces in Valorant esports, OpTic and Envy can create an extremely powerful team that will rival some of the best Valorant teams in the world. And if they play their cards right, their team can push even further in VCT 2022.
What Can We Expect in VCT: NA Challengers 1?
The first NA Challengers have begun, and we already have some interesting developments. Cloud9 takes the lead in Group A by winning 2-0 versus 100 Thieves. This is a huge win for them. And over here in Group B, we saw Version1 take down Knights with another clean 2-0 victory.
Group B is where OpTic Gaming find themselves in, and while it’s an objectively tougher group, they have a great shot at making it to the playoffs.
They’ll play their first match on February 13th where they’ll face Rise. Rise could be considered as one of the underdogs in this tournament, but they can’t be underestimated under circumstances. Still, we believe OpTic has this one in the bag.
Their biggest challenge will certainly be the match with Sentinels on February 26th and the match with Version1 on March 6th. OpTic shouldn’t have any issues with NRG and Knights.
Overall, we see OpTic Gaming making it out alive. It’s a pretty safe bet you’ll see them in the VCT: NA Challengers 1 Playoffs.
