G2 Esports have announced that Wassim ‘keloqz’ Cista has returned to their Valorant team’s starting lineup for the next VCT Open qualifier, replacing longtime member Oscar ‘mixwell’ Cañellas.
The decision comes just 24 hours after G2 were eliminated from the first closed qualifier for Stage 1 Challengers in joint last place following defeats to Vitality and Alliance in the double-elimination tournament.
Keloqz has been on G2’s bench since December, when the team made a series of changes after failing to qualify for Valorant Champions.
Aaro ‘hoody’ Peltokangas and Johan ‘Meddo’ Renbjörk Lundborg were signed in from Giants to replace Keloqz and Jose Luis ‘koldamenta’ Aranguren Herrero. The organization also named a new coach, Daniil ‘pipsoN’ Meshcheryakov, who took over from Neil ‘neilzinho’ Finlay.
Meddo did his best to hype up G2’s new roster, saying that it was going to win it all in 2022 in an interview with Upcomer. But the team failed at their first hurdle, raising doubts about their ability to return to the heights reached in 2020 and 2021 as new contenders are emerging every day.
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He's back!
Keloqz will re-join the team as the starting duelist for Monday’s VCT Open Qualifiers in replacement for Mixwell. pic.twitter.com/gHkJjky4VT
— G2 Esports (@G2esports) January 14, 2022
In a Twitter post written in Spanish, mixwell said that keloqz’s return was a team decision. In a follow-up tweet, the Spaniard stressed that he was “happy” that his teammate will get another shot.
Mixwell was the first Valorant player signed by G2, in June 2020. A former CS:GO player with stints on teams like OpTic and Cloud9, he was a key part of the G2 lineup that dominated Europe in the first year of Valorant and that reached the semi-finals at the VCT Stage 3 Masters in Berlin.
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Now, he will watch from the sidelines as the team will attempt to qualify for Challengers 1 – but for that to happen, they will first need to survive the grueling open bracket.
G2 Valorant roster for VCT Open Qualifier 2:
- Auni ‘AvovA’ Chahade
- Žygimantas ‘nukkye’ Chmieliauskas
- Aaro ‘hoody’ Peltokangas
- Johan ‘Meddo’ Renbjörk Lundborg
- Wassim ‘keloqz’ Cista
