Israeli esports organization NOM Esports have revealed their new roster for Split 1 of VCL East: Surge. The team consists of nero, Zneva, Szimpli, RARE, and Elysium.
nero and Zneva are two of the latest up and coming Israeli players to burst onto the T2 scene. Both of them previously competed for NOM’s academy team NOM Junior, where they competed in a few events during the offseason. Both players also previously competed for Catalyst Esports, were they primarily played in the weekly VEU tournaments and other third party events such as Golden Goose.
Joining them on the team are Szimpli, RARE, and Elysium. Szimpli is one of the best duelists in the Eastern European region at the moment, with the Hungarian always putting up consistent stats and flashy plays. He most recently competed with Italian team QLASH in the offseason, where they placed third in the VCL Italy offseason tournament. Prior to that, the 22-year-old competed for teams such as AYM Esports, MOUZ, and Movistar Riders. He’ll bring a lot of firepower and experience to this roster.
RARE is also new to the Tier 2 scene, previously also primarily playing and getting noticed in the VEU tournaments. The Ukrainian has largely played with mixes and unsigned teams throughout his Valorant career. Most recently, RARE along with Israeli player After and fellow NOM teammate nero competed in the VCL East Open Qualifiers prior to getting signed. The team bowed out after a 0–2 loss to Szypko in Lower Round 3, but made their mark in getting noticed by an organization, with NOM signing both RARE and nero. Throughout the event, RARE played agents Killjoy and KAYO, but also has a substantial amount of games on the Duelist role in the past. It’ll be interesting to see what role he plays with NOM, but he brings a lot of raw talent to the team.
Rounding out the roster is Elysium. The Czech player isn’t new to VCL East, having previously played there in Split 2 of 2022 with Enterprise Esports, where they placed seventh. The 24-year-old later parted ways with the team and was faced without an organization heading into the next split. However, Elysium then competed with teams such as Fever Dream and DEMURY in VEU tournaments in 2023, where he continued to grow as a player and prove himself. Most recently, the Czech competed in the offseason VEU tournament with eco chalks. They placed eighth in the event, but had the chance to go up against other VCL teams such as Acend and Diamant. Elysium has also played for eSuba in the past.
The Head Coach for the team is Cookie. The Israeli has been apart of NOM for a while now, having previously coached the NOM Junior roster. He’s also coached teams such as Catalyst Esports, Finest Female, and BlueOrchid in the past.
This new and improved NOM roster will look to do better than last year, where they placed 10th in Split 1 and 8th in Split 2, almost facing Relegation from the league entirely. Their first matchup will be against Zero Tenacity on January 15th.
