Just one match into the second split of the North American Challengers 2024 season, M80’s VALORANT team has made a major roster move, swapping out one veteran for another.
The organization announced today that Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella is stepping down from the active M80 VALORANT roster, and stepping in will be former G2 player Michael “neT” Bernet, who was removed from the roster back in April.
NeT returns to the Challengers scene and joins the roster core that he and his former teammates defeated at Ascension last year. Prior to joining G2, neT and his former teammates competed under The Guard during Challengers 2023 and beat M80 at the Ascension finals in Brazil to secure a two-year promotion to VCT Americas.
Despite earning a spot in VCT Americas, neT and crew almost didn’t make it to the top-tier international league as The Guard organization’s departure from esports nearly resulted in the players not getting to play. After significant community backlash, Riot relented and permitted the players to find a new sponsoring organization, eventually landing with G2 after fielding offers from more than a dozen potential suitors.
After a slow start in VCT 2024, though, G2 released neT and brought on former Evil Geniuses reserve player icy. The move panned out as G2 went on a run in the playoffs of stage one and reached Masters Shanghai. The team is currently undefeated in Shanghai and has secured a top-three finish at the event.
M80 have also been off to a slow start, considering the expectations placed on the team after bringing in both nitr0 and BcJ in the offseason, finishing top-four in both stage one and the Mid Season Cup. The team opened stage two with a close 2-0 loss to Oxygen and will face Blinn Esports this evening.
