Valkyrie sign former Stealth roster

Valkyrie have announce the singing of four of the former Stealth players, with Nick "blessA" Bryant being the only one from the former Stealth team to not be signed. The team are currently conducting tryouts to find a new fifth.

The current roster can be dated back to Season 37 when Nathan "Xirt" Corretjer and Hunter "Huntxr" Duron first joined forces in ESEA Main; blessA also had a brief stint with the roster in Season 38 before returning for Season 40 alongside Luis "Mexican" Domínguez Buentello. The latest member to join the team was Noah "NoVa" Vaknin who joined recently after placing second at the AGN Atlanta LAN in February alongside Xirt on a mix-team under Unjustified.

Although missing playoffs in ESEA Advanced Season 40 with an 8-6 score and placing 18th in the regular season, the team did place second in the EGL Premier Winter Cup only narrowly losing to Brazen in two overtime maps where both teams showed their worth. Since then the team has not seem much success, only placing 13th - 16th at Fragadelphia 16, although, there is a glimmer of hope with their recent qualification to the ACE Masters.

Unfortunately, the team parted ways with blessA following their qualification and will be playing with Dylan "Irish" Frericks as a stand-in. According to NoVa, the team is still actively searching for their new fifth and will be resuming tryouts after the ACE Masters. Dust2.us has learned that Irish was offered the spot but due to already having a different team lined up, he was unable to take them up on it.

Dust2.us also reached out to NoVa with questions regarding the team's future. He had offered the following statement.

I think that we have a really strong core built from last season. Despite some issues that came to pass between late-stage roster changes and not much practice time, after picking me up the team managed to win some big games to secure an 8-6 record. We realized that making a roster move was a necessary evil as much as we liked blessA. I’m optimistic about finding a new fifth though, the team is in really good form as of late, and hopefully there will be more proof of that tonight which can help build our case.

When asked further about the team's new organization to which he now returns after a brief previous stint with them last year, NoVa expressed excitement about playing under their banner again.

I really love this org, so when I heard news from the owner of Stealth that they were unfortunately unable to support us to the extent they wanted, we mutually parted and I messaged Valkyrie immediately. I know that they do a good job getting matches [streamed] (which is important for me because my mom and grandma watch every match), as well as potential LAN assistance on top of the standard [commitments]. I’m really glad to get to pick back up where we left off and represent them going forward.

Valkyrie will be playing the ACE Masters, starting today, with:

• Nathan "Xirt" Corretjer

• Hunter "Huntxr" Duron

• Luis "Mexican" Domínguez Buentello

• Noah "NoVa" Vaknin

• Dylan "Irish" Frericks (stand-in)