Pujan ‘FNS’ Mehta has insisted that there is no bad blood between the former OpTic Valorant players over the team splitting up after the organization did not get a partnership spot in Riot Games’ Americas league.
The OpTic Gaming roster was the best team over the course of the 2022 competitive calendar, never placing lower than top three in international tournaments and even winning a VCT Masters title.
But as the esport reached a new era with partner leagues instead of an open ecosystem, the roster was on the outside looking in after OpTic was not picked to join the Americas league.
The players have since gone their separate ways, with star player Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker moving to Cloud9, Jimmy ‘Marved’ Nguyen taking a hiatus from competition, and FNS, Austin ‘crashies’ Roberts, Victor ‘Victor’ Wong and head coach Chet ‘Chet’ Singh reportedly joining NRG Esports.
Asked if the roster could have stuck together, FNS explained that after OpTic were denied a spot in the 2023 league, the players began considering parting ways without any hard feelings.
FNS explains how the OpTic Valorant squad split
“I feel like that roster did everything it possibly could do [to stay together] and then when we didn’t get the franchise spot it was like, ‘Okay, whoever wants to try something different, go, and we’ll respect it,’” he told viewers. “The good thing about our team was that there was no bad blood, no matter what. Even if our whole team separated, there would never be bad blood because of what we accomplished last year.”
FNS went on to say that he made sure there was no animosity between the players and that the team still had issues despite their success. He also stressed that he and yay are still “cool” even though the latter went on to sign with Cloud9 during the offseason.
Fans can watch the former OpTic members potentially clash for the first time on separate teams in February at the VCT Kickoff tournament in Brazil.
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