The North American pro Apex Legends scene continued to shake things up with major roster moves today after NRG announced the addition of Zachary “Gildersons” Dennis to its competitive squad. The move completes NRG’s trio for the next year of the Apex Legends Global Series, as Gild joins Chris “sweetdreams” Sexton and Nathan “nafen” Nguyen.
NRG was in need of a third player after the team mutually agreed to part ways with former third Aidan “rocker” Grodin. Rocker subsequently joined Cloud9’s competitive roster.
Gild joins NRG following stints with both Pittsburgh Knights and Team Liquid in last year’s ALGS Pro League. His break-out performances came with Team Liquid in Split Two, and impressed at his first LAN, the Split Two Playoffs in Stockholm, Sweden. Liquid were the best team from North America throughout most of that event, eventually finishing in third place overall.
Compared to the months leading up to ALGS year two, this offseason has seen considerably more moves among the major players in the NA scene, as several teams look to make improvements following underperformance in international competition and a rapidly changing meta. Gild’s move means Liquid is now officially in need of a third player for its roster. And while NRG and C9 have completed their respective teams, there’s still more heavyweights in NA that will make impending moves, such as G2 following an announcement from Rigo “Gent” Padilla that he was leaving their competitive squad, and a suspected new free agent team led by TSM’s Mac “Albralelie” Beckwith.
As for NRG, Gild’s addition is further confirmation that the future of high-level Apex is increasingly shifting away from Gibraltar and shield characters in the game. None of Gild, nafen, or Sweet are known for their shield character play, and the move seems to signal a more aggressive style for the team as a whole.
There are still teams that will play shield characters, as 100 Thieves used Newcastle to great effect at the ALGS Championship, leading to the character becoming much more vogue for many teams. NRG’s move feels much more inspired by FURIA’s style of play at the ALGS Championship, however. With three players known for their fighting power and play on attack-oriented legends, the team will be one to watch out for in the coming season of ALGS.
Year three of ALGS is expected to begin some time in late 2022.
