One of the most impactful and highly regarded VALORANT players in the world, Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin, has departed from the M3C lineup and is now an unrestricted free agent, according to nAts himself.
In a Twitter post today, nAts announced he made the “tough decision” to no longer play alongside his M3C teammates, saying that it’s “now time for changes.”
The decision from nAts comes just two weeks after he and his now former M3C teammates officially became free agents themselves, finally cutting ties completely with the Gambit organization that the players were unable to represent this year due to Riot’s sanction on Russian organizations in the wake of the Ukrainian invasion. The M3C lineup fell just short of reaching Champions for the second straight year, falling to Team Liquid in the EMEA LCQ grand finals.
Between playing agents like Viper, Cypher, and others, nAts has been a foundational part of the M3C roster’s success since the start of their impressive Masters Three Berlin 2021 trophy run. As both a site anchor and one of the most dangerous lurkers in all of VALORANT, nAts was consistently relied upon by M3C to deliver back-breaking plays that would cripple an opponent’s momentum.
M3C added Seymon “purp0” Borchev as a substitute when they made their collective free agent move, but it’s unclear yet if he will step into the starting roster. Even with nAts’ departure, the M3C core still features some of the world’s most talented players such as Redgar, sheydos, and Chronicle, and should fetch interest from any organization looking to compete in the EMEA league in 2023.
Likewise, any EMEA team will certainly consider bringing in a world-class talent like nAts, especially considering that he only just turned 20 years old. During the upcoming offseason period after the conclusion of Champion 2022, all eyes in EMEA will be on where M3C and nAts respectively end up.
