Daps & s0m reportedly leaving CSGO to join Chet’s NRG Valorant team
StarLadder / DreamHack[jwplayer PnhLAMEj]
NRG Esports is reportedly creating a Valorant team made up of former and active Gen.G players Damien ‘daps’ Steele and Sam ‘s0m’ Oh to play under newly retired CS:GO coach ‘Chet’ Singh, according to Rush B Media.
NRG has contacted Chet, but is heavily looking to land both daps and s0m, per the report. This would signal daps and Chet’s return to the NRG side after a successful 2018-19 CS:GO campaign that amounted to first place finishes in ECS Season 6 and Intel Extreme Masters XIII Shanghai, among others.
As for the 18-year-old s0m, he’s been on the CS:GO radar for years now and recently helped daps’ Gen.G take top placement at DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020 as well as ESL One Road to Rio NA.
It wasn’t long after that when daps started thinking about leaving the team, before finally announcing he would step down from Gen.G in early September, hinting a switch to Valorant.
DreamHackNRG are not only looking to pick-up the decorated NA IGL, but also the young talent that shined under his leadership to continue that synergy onto Riot’s emerging esport.
Like many CS:GO pros, s0m has been showing incredible prowess in Valorant on his off time. With Valve’s esport currently experiencing a rough transition to the online-only era, more pros have been looking for greener pastures on the Valorant-side of things.
Though it wasn’t previously believed that s0m, a centerpiece behind Hansel ‘BnTeT’ Ferdinand and Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta, would depart Gen.G.
As sudden as a transfer would be, there’s no denying the instant framework he and his former teammate would bring to NRG’s project, should it come together.
DreamhackThis report comes only two days after Chet officially retired from competitive CS:GO after leaving 100 Thieves, and was rumored to be switching to Valorant at the time.
With an IGL like daps and a young talent in s0m, Chet would already have primary components he needs to start building an instant top-to-bottom contender, like he’s done a few times in CS:GO with teams under the likes of NRG/Evil Geniuses, OpTic Gaming, and CLG.
The power structure in North American Valorant has been settling with teams like Sentinels, Team SoloMid, and Cloud9 at the top. But NRG could soon enter the arena with a formidable squad, depending on how they build up their Valorant team.