Michael ‘Mikes’ Hockom, the head coach of Envy’s Valorant team, will not travel with the squad to Berlin for the VCT Stage 3 Masters event, he announced on Tuesday.
In a Twitter post, the North American coach explained that ongoing delays in the process of obtaining a passport will force him to miss the showpiece event.
“I have exhausted all my alternative options, but I’m still super happy that the guys are going to this LAN after how much work they’ve put in,” he wrote. “We will make it to Champions.”
Unfortunately I'm not going to make it to Berlin with the current US passport delays. Exhausted all my alternative options, but still super happy the guys are going to this lan after how much work they've put in. We will make it to Champions.
— Mikes (@MikesHD_) August 17, 2021
Mikes, who began his coaching career with G2 Esports last year, joined Envy in June ahead of the VCT Stage 3 qualifiers. The team booked the final North American spot at VCT Masters Berlin after finishing in third place in the Challengers Playoffs, where they beat FaZe and XSET in the lower bracket before losing out 3-2 to 100 Thieves.
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Envy have yet to announce whether they plan on hiring another coach to guide the team through the Berlin event, which will kick off on September 9. This will be Envy’s first international event after they failed to qualify for VCT Stage 2 Masters Reykjavík, where Sentinels and Version1 represented North America.
With the spot locked in, Envy will now be looking to iron out the wrinkles in their game. After all, the Challengers Playoffs was the team’s first tournament with Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteake, one of the hottest properties in North America.
The former Andbox member acquitted himself well in his debut tournament for Envy, ranking second for ACS (244) and seventh for K/D (1.15).
