The North American organization NRG disappeared from the Counter-Strike scene around four years ago. It was quite disappointing to see them leave right when it seemed like they were on the path to success. But it’s never too late, as NRG has now returned to the competitive world of Counter-Strike.
Since early November, there have been reports of the North American organization looking for a CS2 team. They later confirmed these rumors to HLTV and revealed that they had a “core in mind,” but no signed contracts or terms had been agreed upon by any of those players.
On November 29, NRG shared a skit video across various platforms, announcing their official return to the competitive Counter-Strike scene. In the video, co-owner Nick “Sapnap” Armstrong asks CEO Andy Miller for a CS2 team on NRG’s eighth anniversary. When the latter is about to say no, the screen shifts to clips from CS2 gameplay and reveals the new team roster.
NRG’s new lineup consists of Damian “daps” Steele, Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte, Joshua “oSee” Ohm, Justin “FaNg” Coakley, and Jadan “HexT” Postma. With this new lineup, NRG became the third major Counter-Strike 2 team to feature a complete North American lineup.
More about the new NRG lineup for the CS2 return
NRG’s new CS2 lineup features names that their fans are quite familiar with, like daps and Brehze. These two esports professionals were part of the North American organization’s last lineup before the four-year hiatus. After NRG shut down their Counter-Strike program, the entire roster was obtained by Evil Geniuses.
daps and Brezhe brought along their former Evil Geniuses teammate HexT to NRG. Aside from the ex-Geniuses, Team Liquid’s former AWPer oSee and Complexity player FaNg joined the new NRG lineup. Most of these players were dropped from their former active rosters in the off-season, as their former teams also planned to rebuild their squads for the upcoming season.
NRG is returning to the North American CS2 scene while the other big-name teams are moving away from it. Recently, Team Liquid made the shocking move to the European CS 2 scene, and on the other hand, HexT’s former team is reportedly planning to walk away from esports entirely.
Interestingly, NRG’s last tournament was the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, where they finished fourth in the tournament. So it would be intriguing to see how this North American organization performs upon their return to the competitive Counter-Strike scene.
