Cover-Credits:
On 25th September, esports organization Natus Vincere (NaVi) posted an announcement video for its entry into the Valorant Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) franchising for 2023. However, fans and viewers noticed a potential leak in the video suggesting superstar European Valorant player Kyrylo "ANGE1" Karasov joining NaVi for the upcoming and revamped Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) season. The video showed NaVi owner Yevhen Zolotarov running around the NaVi headquarters with a package that he assumed was from Riot Games.
The video had a sense of humor about it as it built up to the opening of the box only for Zolotarov to realize that it was the wrong one and that the NaVi staff had opened the package from Riot Games with a spike and letter confirming NaVi’s acceptance into the VCT EMEA partnership program.
FPX ANGE1 to join NaVi?
FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) had a successful run in the 2022 VCT season and won VCT Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen also. It was favored to win the Valorant Champions tournament as well but FPX lost to DRX in the lower bracket in the playoff. FPX’s in-game leader (FPX) ANGE1 had a big part to play in the team’s victory runs but unfortunately, FPX was not selected for the VCT 2023 franchising. The leagues around the world have already entered a frenzied state with the player transfer window and free agency in play.
Most players have not yet confirmed their future in Valorant esports and which team they would be playing for. However, this new video posted by NaVi might have made things easier for ANGE1 and his imminent announcement.
At the 38-second mark in the video, NaVi owner Zolotarov enters the merchandise room and the camera is positioned at a low angle such that a jersey is visible on the left side of the screen. The NaVi jersey reads “ANGE1” and the screen showed the caption: “New 2023 samples arrived.”
Fans are convinced that this was no leak by NaVi and that it was an intentional easter egg left for viewers to decipher. It could not possibly be a leak since the camera was positioned that way to capture the frame with the jersey and the closed captions also went perfectly along with the easter egg.
It is to be noted that NaVi, ANGE1, or FPX have not commented on the transfer yet. We will not know for sure until it is announced officially that ANGE1 is joining NaVi for the VCT 2023 season.
