Phoenix Takes Flight: Superstar FPX player ‘ardiis’ set to join NRG Valorant Roster

Fly Phoenix, Fly

The first intercontinental Valorant exchange has commenced, with FunPlus Phoenix player Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks set to join the NRG Valorant roster. The storied North American organization has recently qualified for VCT partnership and it appears they are looking to bulk up their firepower with the Latvian powerhouse, who, alongside his teammates tore through the competition to win not just Masters Copenhagen 2022, but also achieved 4th place at Champions 2022 less than 2 months later. This comes on the heels of reports that the organization is also close to signing with the former Optic Gaming core of Pujan “FNS” Mehta, Victor “Victor” Wong and Austin “crashies” Roberts.

Since Riot’s announcement at the end of September for the 30 teams that made the partnership program ahead of the upcoming 2023 Valorant Champions Tour season, the ensuing roster shuffle in the off-season for the Valorant pro ecosystem has been rife with speculation and anticipation. The primary draw and benefit for the large organizations in securing partnership is to avoid the potential for relegation and elimination early on in the open qualifiers that they will now have to fight through (dubbed Challengers), before receiving a chance to promote to the International League where the partnered teams await them.

Weathering the Storm

With limited slots for each of the three major regions, there was guaranteed to be many teams that failed to make the program, and thus be faced with the choice to either disband the team or play on for a chance to qualify at the end of the split. Sadly, the tenured roster failed to make the cut and as such, joined the extensive list of teams rejected by Riot for the program. 2 weeks ago, with Champions recently over and in the face of the announcements of the partnered teams, the former Masters winning roster announced that they would be open to offer from other teams after their organization’s bid fell through.

The historically Chinese owned organization entered Valorant during the infancy stage of the competitive scene 2 years ago with a European team and dominated early tournaments in the EMEA, culminating in a 4th finish at that year’s First Strike event. They would go on to maintain their relevancy through top finishes throughout 2021, finishing in first place during the Europe Stage 2 Challengers 1. In 2022, they would qualify for the Masters Reykjavik through their 1st place finish in the EMEA Stage 1 Challengers. However, due to visa issues, the roster was unable to compete, replaced instead by Team Liquid. At Masters 2 though, they cemented their legacy as the best team in the world at the time, overcoming the rising APAC duo of Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto and Wan “Jinggg” Jing Jie in a nail-bitings bo5 that would culminate in a trophy lift for the European core.

It comes as no surprise then that the former Masters’ winning roster may be looking across the ocean for a new home. Ardis himself posted a searing 269 ACS and 1.3KD on Chamber, finishing just behind Koji “Laz” Ushida in ratings despite having more than double the number of rounds played, with 207 rounds to Koji’s 85.

Reports now indicate that NRG’s roster is set for 2023 and fans eagerly await the debut of their new roster.

As of now, the NRG roster looks as follows:

• Pujan “FNS” Mehta
• Victor “Victor” Wong
• Austin “crashies” Roberts
• Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks
• Sam “s0m” Oh

Image credit: FPX Esports