Pujan ‘FNS’ Mehta talked about NRG Esports’ struggles during the 2023 VCT season and why the lineup wasn’t as successful as it should have been on paper.
NRG Esports had a relatively successful 2023 VCT season, but not nearly up to the standards that it and the community had set. With a core from the 2022 trophy-winning OpTic Gaming roster, many expected the team to be vying for championships.
Instead, the team peaked with a fourth-place finish at VCT Masters Tokyo and had an early exit from Valorant Champions 2023 at the hands of Bilibili Gaming. The cracks in the roster started to show during the VCT Americas season, with the team’s IGL admitting that they weren’t playing up to their standards and had to revert back to comfort picks mid-split.
“I think for a while there we were playing not to lose more than to win. And so that was my final solution,” FNS told Dexerto in April.
FNS speaks on NRG’s struggles during the 2023 season
In a live stream on September 14, FNS talked about what exactly went wrong with the NRG lineup during their bumpy season.
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“We couldn’t get our chemistry right at all times,” he said. “It was very inconsistent. Every game seemed like a struggle to win. It didn’t feel like we were able to dominate a single opponent at any time. It was very rare that we dominated people.”
FNS then mentioned how the squad would struggle to close out advantageous rounds, and would throw away leads constantly. He also called out how each individual player’s form would fluctuate between matches.
NRG is reportedly retooling its roster for the 2024 VCT season with only Victor ‘Victor’ Wong and Austin ‘crashies’ Roberts rumored to be staying in the starting lineup. NRG has removed both Ardis ‘ardiis’ Svarenieks and Sam ‘s0m’ Oh from the VCT contract database.
ardiis has been linked to a move to NAVI, while s0m has said he is returning to streaming and could come back to competitive play if the right offer comes along. FNS is still under contract with the organization through 2025 and has yet to be linked to a move away from the team.
