With out a staff because the finish of his stint with JD Gaming a number of weeks in the past, Park “stew” Younger-chan will be a part of the 2024 world champions, sources inform Sheep Esports. He’ll change Zhang “Jieni7” Juntai, who had been a part of the roster since 2025, and can subsequently compete in his first worldwide match after almost three seasons spent making an attempt to qualify for one with JDG.
Important room for enchancment
Regardless of a disappointing general efficiency at VCT China Stage 2, which ended with a Play-In loss to JDG on Tuesday, EDG are however assured a spot on the VALORANT Champions, which can happen of their residence nation. Having gathered sufficient Championship Factors all year long (20 at current, seven greater than third-placed All Avid gamers), the Stage 1 winners have constructed up a sufficiently snug result in keep away from being overtaken.
Nonetheless, it had turn into more and more obvious that the staff wanted to deal with a number of points forward of essentially the most demanding competitors of the 12 months. EDG have subsequently opted to show to stew, who has been and not using a staff since June, when he and JD Gaming agreed to half methods. The participant, who joined the league in 2024, has lengthy been thought to be possessing important untapped potential, though his staff had did not translate it into outcomes. He’ll now have the chance to show what he can do throughout the area’s most profitable staff on the worldwide stage.
From a tactical standpoint, though stew has traditionally performed as a Duelist, he transitioned to a Controller function throughout Stage 1 this 12 months and will doubtlessly retain that place at EDG, the place Jieni7 beforehand operated. The staff might additionally hand the Controller function to Zhang “Smoggy” Zhao, permitting stew to turn into the staff’s second Duelist alongside Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang.