Report: Nouns set to unveil new roster with Cryptic at the helm

Dust2.us has learned from multiple sources that Nouns are set to unveil their new lineup for 2025 in the coming days, seeing former BOSS IGL Matthew "Cryptic" Whitmore take the helm after being poached from the orgless team in the final hours of 2024. Cryptic will be joined on this new Nouns lineup by Jaxon "Peeping" Cornwell and Gage "Infinite" Green, with the latter player joining Nouns from Party Astronauts.

The incoming trio join Nouns to cap after a lengthy rebuild for the DAO-backed organization. The saga started in mid-November when Jeorge "Jeorge" Endicott was acquired by NRG while Nouns parted ways with Carson "nosraC" O'Reilly after two years with the organization. Following these changes, Nouns were spotted fielding Peeping and Nick "nicx" Lee on trial for a number of events, including Fragadelphia 18 where the team finished in fourth after falling to Cryptic's BOSS lineup.

Following the start of the winter player break, Nouns also waved goodbye to Christopher "cJ dA K1nG" Jones while aiming to rebuild around nicx and Peeping. However, with nicx's reported pivot towards Complexity, plans ultimately had to change leading to the acquisition of Infinite from Party Astronauts.

On this new Nouns roster, Cryptic will be taking over the IGL reins from William "RUSH" Wierzba while leading an entirely new quartet of players. This will be a massive test for the rising star IGL to prove his mettle after punching above his weight with the various iterations of the BOSS roster. He will of course be able to leverage the experience of Major champion RUSH while also working with tenured former Liquid coach, Eric "adreN" Hoag, in navigating this new challenge.

Like many organizations, Nouns are focused on qualifying to North America's first Major, the BLAST.tv Austin Major, in mid-2025, with this new core of players needing to climb the Valve Ranking System (VRS) to lock in a spot in the 32-team Major.

Nouns are reportedly set to consist of:

• Paytyn "junior" Johnson

• William "RUSH" Wierzba

• Jaxon "Peeping" Cornwell

• Matthew "Cryptic" Whitmore

• Gage "Infinite" Green

• Eric "adreN" Hoag (Coach)

Dust2.us reached out to Nouns' founder Sasquatch ahead of publication, who confirmed the changes but noted that they are contingent on the organization's funding proposal passing on the Nouns DAO. The funding proposal may be found here.