G2 Esports announces long-awaited fifth man as former Cloud9 Valorant star

G2 Esports have announced the addition of ‘leaf’ to their Valorant roster after signing The Guard’s core.

G2 are finally getting their chance to play on the main stage of the Valorant Champions Tour after missing out on the initial franchising opportunity. Without a spot in the Americas, G2 decided to field a roster to compete in the Ascension league with the intention of promotion at the end of the year.

However, the G2 roster that was composed of former Sentinels members was unable to compete with the other teams and were eventually eliminated. G2 released their entire Valorant roster before the start of the off season.

The Guard were the team to be promoted to VCT but the organization failed to file the paperwork in time and lost their spot. Those who wanted the spot before would have to sign a majority of The Guard’s former roster, which G2 did.

However, with Ian ‘tex’ Botsch moving on and joining a different team, The Guard’s remaining roster had to find a fifth before they could officially compete in the VCT as G2.

Cloud9’s superstar leaf has found a new home with G2 Esports

Like G2, Cloud9 released a majority of their roster when the season ended. Nathan “leaf” Orf was one of the players to be released after spending the last two years competing for the organization.

“Riot said we can’t 4v5 VCT,” said G2. “So f*** it, welcome leaf.”

Former The Guard members Jacob ‘valyn’ Batio, Jonah ‘JonahP’ Pulice, Michael ‘neT’ Bernet and Trent ‘trent’ Cairns were the ones that signed to G2 during the off season. The only player that was not brought with them was tex who went on to sign with Argentinian organization Leviatán.

The newly formed roster’s first match takes place on October 26. G2 will be facing Sentinels during an off season best-of-three showmatch tournament.