The 2023 VCT Americas partner teams’ rosters

January 3, 2023

by Brian Bencomo

The dust has mostly settled on the 2022-23 VALORANT Champions Tour offseason, and all 10 partnered VCT Americas teams have revealed their rosters. The 10 teams, including organizations from North America, Latin America and Brazil will be competing against each other in Los Angeles starting in March, but before then will take part in the global VCT LOCK//IN tournament taking place in Brazil from Feb. 13 to March 4. To get you caught up with how every team looks after an offseason of big changes, here’s a primer on each team’s roster heading into the VCT 2023 season.

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100 Thieves

Photo credit: Red Bull

Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk
Derrek "Derrek" Ha
Brenden "stellar" McGrath
Matthew "Cryocells" Panganiban
Sean "bang" Bezerra

Of all the VCT Americas partnered teams, 100 Thieves were the most successful in 2022. Naturally, they made only one change in the offseason, adding XSET star Cryocells to bring in a heavy hitter to this already strong lineup. In the offseason, 100 Thieves won Red Bull Home Ground #3, beating fellow North American team Cloud9 in the final and a few European teams along the way: Team Liquid, Team Vitality and Team Heretics. The tournament title is early proof that 100 Thieves should be one of the top teams in the Americas and the world in 2023.

Cloud9

Photo credit: Riot Games

Nathan "leaf" Orf
Erick "Xeppaa" Bach
Anthony "vanity" Malaspina
Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro
Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker
Mateja "qpert" Mijović

Cloud9 got the biggest prize in the offseason when they signed former OpTic Gaming player yay. At the 2022 Game Awards, yay was named the best esports athlete. He’s a star and adds a lot of firepower to a Cloud9 roster that showed promise in 2021 but underwhelmed in 2022. The other offseason addition was Zellsis who reunites with vanity. The two players helped lead Version1 to an appearance at Masters: Reykjavík 2021. Together with returning players Xeppaa and leaf, this team figures to be among the best in the Americas, and they will be coached by Matthew "mCe" Elmore, who was instrumental in The Guard’s meteoric rise in early 2022. The Guard's former assistant coach qpert also is on the roster as a sixth man.

Evil Geniuses

Photo credit: Riot Games

Kelden "Boostio" Pupello
Jeffrey "Reformed" Lu
Alexander "jawgemo" Mor
Corbin "C0M" Lee
Vincent "Apotheon" Le
Ethan "Ethan" Arnold
Brendan "BcJ" Jensen
Max "Demon1" Mazanov
Kyle "ScrewFace" Jensen

Evil Geniuses didn’t drop any of the players from their 2022 starting lineup, but they did add Ethan and BcJ. both are part of the team's starting lineup alongside jawgemo, C0M and Boostio, the in-game leader. Ethan is a former NRG and 100 Thieves player and rejoins the organization after playing with EG in CS:GO. BcJ joins the team via XSET, one of the top teams in North America in 2022.

FURIA

Photo credit: Riot Games

Gabriel "qck" Lima
Khalil "Khalil" Schmidt
Matheus "mazin" Araújo
Douglas "dgzin" Silva
Leonardo "mwzera" Serrati

FURIA are a team that qualified for VALORANT Champions each of the past two years via the South American Last Chance Qualifier. Their roster is largely unchanged going into 2023. The only new addition this offseason was one of the most talented Brazilian players. Mwzera has long been considered one of the best Brazilian players but has seen limited success with his teams Gamelanders Blue and Keyd Stars (aka Vivo Keyd). He did reach VALORANT Champions with Keyd Stars in 2021.

KRÜ Esports

Photo credit: Riot Games

Nicolas "Klaus" Ferrari
Juan Pablo "NagZ" Lopez Miranda
Alexandre "xand" Zizi
Santiago "Daveeys" Ruiz
Marco "Melser" Amaro
Carlos "axeddy" Galvão

KRÜ will always be known as the only VALORANT team to qualify for all the VCT international events from 2021 to 2022. The org had largely the same roster across four Masters and two Champions, but heading into 2023, KRÜ’s roster will look quite different. Klaus and NagZ are holdovers from the old roster, but xand, Daveeys, Melser and axeddy are all newcomers. Fans might be familiar with Melser, a Chilean player who was part of Leviatán last season, and xand, a Brazilian who was part of Ninjas in Pyjamas in 2022. Daveeys is a Colombian player who was part of E-Xolos LAZER and will finally get a taste of international competition. Axeddy is another Brazilian who joins the team after stints with smaller teams, and like Daveeys, he will finally get to compete on the international stage.

Leviatán

Photo credit: Riot Games

Francisco "kiNgg" Aravena
Vicente "Tacolilla" Compagnon
Fabian "Shyy" Usnayo
Agustin "Nozwerr" Ibarra
Roberto "Mazino" Bugueño
Angelo "keznit" Mori

Leviatán got an infusion of talent from their South American rivals KRÜ. Keznit and Mazino join their Chilean brethren Tacolilla and Shyy on Leviatán. The other newcomer on the team is Nozwerr, who joins the team after spending the past two seasons with FURIA. While KRÜ have been the gold standard among South American teams, Leviatán rose to prominence in 2022, and these moves should make the team even stronger. Now that they will compete against North American competition on a weekly basis, Leviatán could emerge as one of the top teams in the Americas.

LOUD

Photo credit: Riot Games

Erick "aspas" Santos
Felipe "Less" Basso
Matias "Saadhak" Delipetro
Cauan "cauanzin" Pereira
Arthur "tuyz" Vieira

LOUD will not be running it back in 2023 with the same roster that emerged victorious at VALORANT Champions 2022. Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi and Bryan "pANcada" Luna have moved on to play for Sentinels, so LOUD are not automatically the top team in the Americas entering the VCT’s new era. Cauanzin joins from Ninjas in Pyjamas, while tuyz comes over from TBK Esports. Cauanzin has played on the international stage at Masters: Reykjavík 2022, but tuyz comes into the team without international experience. LOUD also lost their coach, Matheus "bzkA" Tarasconi, and will now be led by Daniel "fRoD" Montaner, who has coached T1, beastcoast and Pioneers.

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MIBR

Photo credit: Riot Games

João "jzz" Pedro
Leandro "frz" Gomes
Olavo "heat" Marcelo
Murillo "murizzz" Tuchtenhagen
Matheus "RgLM" Rodigoli
André "Txozin" Saidel

MIBR are the only one of the 10 partnered Americas teams that didn’t get a taste of international competition across the VCT 2021 and 2022 seasons. However, two of their offseason additions did compete internationally while they were with Keyd Stars, heat and murizzz. Heat, in particular, shined in 2021 after having the fifth-best ACS of any player at VALORANT Champions. RgLM also joins MIBR via Keyd Stars, but he joined the team in 2022. Txozin comes to the team via Rise Gaming (not to be confused with the North American team Rise). It’s also worth noting that this team will be coached by LOUD’s championship coach Matheus "bzkA" Tarasconi.

NRG

Photo credit: Riot Games

Sam "s0m" Oh
Pujan "FNS" Mehta
Austin "crashies" Roberts
Victor "Victor" Wong
Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks

When it comes to clout, NRG might not be on the same level as 100 Thieves, Cloud9 and Sentinels. But when it comes to talent, NRG could easily have the best roster in 2023. NRG signed three members of OpTic Gaming’s former roster, FNS, crashies and Victor, and their coach, Chet "Chet" Singh. OpTic were one of the best teams in the world in 2022 with a win at Masters: Reykjavík and runner-up finish at Champions. Plus, NRG picked up ardiis, who’s also a Masters champion and is similar to the former OpTic trio’s teammate Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker when it comes to talent and role. Not to be overlooked, s0m is a good young player who should fit right in with the rest of the roster.

Sentinels

Photo credit: Riot Games

Tyson "TenZ" Ngo
Zachary "zekken" Patrone
Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi
Bryan "pANcada" Luna
Rory "dephh" Jackson
Hunter "SicK" Mims

When it comes to clout, Sentinels are unmatched. They held on to their star TenZ and added two players (zekken and dephh) and the coach (Syyko) from the highly successful 2022 XSET roster. Plus, they added two world champions in Sacy and pANcada. Now that North America and South America will be one region, Sentinels might have the most popular roster in the entire region with American, Canadian and Brazilian players. The question is, will all of these players complement each other and help Sentinels return to prominence as one of the top teams in the region?

Lead photo credit: Riot Games