After leaving CS:GO for VALORANT back in 2020, American superstar Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella is now leaving CS2 for VALORANT in 2024, signing with M80 and eyeing a return to VCT via Challengers and Ascension.
M80, who just missed out on ascending to VCT Americas last season with a loss in the grand finals to The Guard (who were picked up by G2 later on), has reloaded its roster by bringing on not just nitr0 but former XSET/Evil Geniuses member Brendan “BcJ” Jensen, who was confirmed back in November.
Also returning to the team is head coach and former CS Major winner Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer, as well as three starters from last year in Gianfranco “koalanoob” Potesti, Marc-Andre “NiSMO” Tayar, and Alexander “Zander” Dituri. All members of the starting roster last year were given the opportunity to seek additional offers following last season. Nitr0 and BcJ will replace Mouhamed “johnqt” Ouarid and Daniel “eeiu” Vucenovic, who left for Sentinels and 100 Thieves, respectively.
Following nitr0’s previous transition from Counter-Strike to VALORANT, he and the veteran-stacked 100 Thieves roster claimed a trophy at First Strike and reached the semifinals of Masters Berlin in 2021. He returned to both CS and Team Liquid in early 2022 but was unable to recreate the same level of success and personal performance as he did in his previous stint, and eventually retired from the game in June 2023.
With NA Challengers in a bit of a state of disarray following the departure of many prolific organizations, the path is open for M80 and its very talented roster to make another run at Ascension in 2024, meaning the relatively new org could be on the VCT Americas stage as early as 2025. Challengers is set to begin on Jan. 31.
