Valorant star nAts open to offers as he leaves M3C

Declan Mclaughlin
nAts posing for the camera at Valorant Champions 2021

Ayaz ‘nAts’ Akhmetshin announced on August 22 via Twitter that he is open to offers as the Valorant star leaves M3C after almost a year with Gambit Esports/MC3.

nAts has been one of the stars of European Valorant almost since he came on the scene. He rose to prominence on Gambit Esports, standing out with high Kill/Death ratios and round impact as a Controller player.

With Gambit, nAts won the 2021 Commonwealth of Independent States Valorant Champions Tour Stage 1 Masters tournament, was crowned the Stage 3 Masters Berlin champion and placed second at Valorant Champions. The 20 year old was also ranked the best player of 2021 by Dexerto.

In 2022, however, nAts and his team had a dip in form as they missed out on all three international events in the VCT circuit. The team also had to deal with the Russian war on Ukraine impacting their schedule and organization.

This caused the team to compete under the name M3C starting in VCT Stage 1.

nAts himself has had a great 2022 individually. He was top five in most statistical categories in the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier tournament and was top 15 in some categories across Stage 1 and Stage 2 Challengers Group Stages.

The Controller player might not be the only M3C player looking for a new squad. Other M3C players have made posts about potentially joining another organization, but have not made a serious public statement like their teammate.

With the team missing Champions, and Gambit’s odds of making it into the 2023 VCT international leagues incredibly low, moving on to another organization makes sense for the players on M3C.

With the entire VCT system getting an overhaul in 2023, teams may be looking to bolster their rosters for if they make it into the new leagues. nAts would be a premier pick up for any EMEA squad looking to make a run at international glory in 2023.