To become an esports professional, your gaming abilities need to be at their peak level to compete with the best that competition has to offer. In VALORANT, there’s an incredibly high skill ceiling, focusing on mechanics and movement, and all that makes Kevin “POISED” Ngo’s situation all the more incredible.
POISED currently IGLs for FaZe’s VALORANT roster, and has pushed multiple teams within the top five North American teams in the scene. While this is already a massive achievement for some, the IGL revealed in a Twitlonger on Jan. 19 that he’s quietly been overcoming another barrier through his esports career too—the VALORANT star has been playing without feeling in his fingertips and palm for the past five years.
As a result of a freak accident where he cut “open every single muscle, and nerve” in his forearm, POISED had to spend years recovering. He had no feeling in his forearm and hand, and had to undergo “physical therapy every single fucking day for two years until (he) could move it again.”
Even after that process, however, the IGL star “still couldn’t feel a thing.”
He said he’s slowly gaining feeling back in some spaces where it has been missing, but the feeling in his “palms and fingertips” has yet to return. POISED said he focused on his “spatial cognitive ability” in-game to get him where he is today, and encouraged the possibility that “there are other ways to go pro.”
So far, POISED’s VALORANT history has been a series of close calls. Since he took the helm of FaZe’s VALORANT roster, the squad has placed third in the Champions Tour North America: Last Chance Qualifier. They almost qualified for VALORANT Champions 2022 but suffered an unfortunate defeat by The Guard, who were runners-up.
During his time in Rise, POISED came one step closer to making it through to the VALORANT Challengers in 2021, but ultimately fell at the final hurdle to the Cloud9 Blue roster, who made it through to playoffs at VALORANT Champions 2021.
It looks like POISED is aiming to take it one step further this year. The IGL ended the revelation by warning his VALORANT rivals “FaZe is coming to win Ascension.”
