- VALORANT player Menace has been benched by his team Noble
- Menace will be allowed to temporarily play for other teams if he wishes to do so
- The player’s recent underperformance might be the reason his team wishes to try out different composition
After failing to qualify for the Challengers Two in VALORANT, team Noble has benched Menace and allowing him to “entertain offers from any interested teams”.
Menace’s Benching and How it Came to Be
Jadin “Menace” Wagner has been benched from his team Noble. This was announced in a tweet by the player himself. Wagner remains contracted with Noble but will be allowed to play for other teams during his benched time.
Menace was playing a duelist in the Phoenix1 lineup. The whole roster was eventually taken under Noble’s wing in February. The latter organization had been previously taking a several months break from the competitive VALORANT scene after it disbanded its previous roster in October.
It would seem that Noble is now looking to further fine-tune the team in order to continue climbing the competitive ladder. The roster participated in numerous events and fared quite well in the beginning of the VCT Challengers circuit. The team even managed to knock out some of the big names in esports, namely Evil Geniuses and Luminosity.
Trying to Patch Up Declining Experience
However, the team’s performance dropped as the VCT 2021: North America Stage 2 Challengers 2 Qualifier progressed. There Noble got quickly eliminated by Sentinels during the quarterfinals.
Menace’s score in these events was somewhat lacking at times. He did perform amazingly during the second matchup against On The Way Gaming where he scored the impressive 47 kills but his other performances weren’t nearly as good. And that is what probably led to his benching.
The duelist is still just 17 years old. As a young and promising player, he probably won’t have much trouble finding a temporary team. Furthermore this change of pace may prove as a way for Menace to gain more experience on the field: roster rearrangements, benching and temporarily playing in another team are a part and parcel of esports. It will be a way for the player to get familiar with this more dynamic part of a professional esports athlete’s career.
Whatever the case, we can hope that Menace will make the best of it and will continue to establish himself on the competitive VALORANT scene.
The VCT NA Challengers 2 will continue tomorrow where several teams will take a shot at continuing to the Challenger finals coming on April 29.
