UK esports org Excel have revealed their full Valorant roster and coaching staff who will make their debut at the Champions Tour this week.
The roster includes a mixture of FPS veterans and rising stars led by David ‘Davidp’ Prins, who was announced as Excel entered Valorant earlier this month, as well as a more controversial pick-up in banned CSGO player/coach B1GGY.
Kieran Holmes-Darby, Excel Esports chief gaming officer and co-founder, told Esports News UK: “At Excel we have done our due diligence and are comfortable that Morgan will uphold our brand values and belief in the Power of Better.
“With our focus on improvement never stopping, we want to give him an opportunity to reignite his career and move on to pastures new.”
The Excel Valorant players and coaches are as follows, along with descriptions from an Excel Esports press release:
- David ‘Davidp’ Prins (Role: Smoker, IGL & Captain)– Davidp joins Excel from G2 Esports where he was part of a dominating roster that won all seven Ignition Series in Europe.
- Morgan ‘B1GGY’ Madour (Role: Support) – B1GGY is an ex-CSGO player and coach, where he competed at several high-tier events before turning his attention to Valorant at the release of the game. He is banned in CSGO (see ‘B1GGY criticism’ below).
- Marc ‘Honeybee’ Begley (Role: Sentinel) – Honeybee is a young British talent looking to make his mark with prior experience in semi-pro CSGO and on the amateur Valorant scene.
“We have done our due diligence and are comfortable that Morgan will uphold our brand values and belief in the Power of Better. With our focus on improvement never stopping, we want to give him an opportunity to reignite his career and move on to pastures new.”
Kieran Holmes-Darby, Excel Esports
- Vincent ‘Happy’ Cervoni (Role: Flex)– Happy is a CSGO veteran with two Major tournament wins and a wealth of competitive experience as part of Team Envy. Happy joins Excel from Giants where he made the official switch to Valorant
- Alend ‘Ale’ Khalaf (Role: Duelist) – Ale makes his professional competitive debut as part of EXCEL’s Valorant roster. Known as a rookie with incredible mechanical skill, Ale will be looking to transfer his skills to the big stage.
- Jimmy ‘Jumpy’ Berndtsson (Role: Head Coach) – Jimmy joins EXCEL as an experienced former CSGO player and coach having previously coached Fnatic and North.
- Sam ‘Fields’ Greenfield (Role: Assistant Coach) – Fields previously coached Purple Cobras during their successful stint across the Valorant semi-pro scene including top place finishes at Rix.GG Cup and epic31 Online.
“We are really excited to present our full Valorant roster and start competing against the best teams the scene has to offer,” said Kieran Holmes-Darby, co-founder and chief gaming officer at Excel Esports.
“When selecting the final line-up we really took our time to find players and coaches who really understood our vision. We are in this for the long term and I truly believe we have created something special. Our ambitions for this year are limitless and I can’t wait to start this journey and experience it alongside our players, partners and community.”
B1GGY criticism
Some criticised the inclusion of B1GGY to the line-up, who was previously removed from Team Heretics for the use of an in-game coach spectating bug in CSGO.
He received a seven and a half month ban from the Esports Integrity Commission in September 2020 and, back in 2015, was banned from Valve events for alleged match fixing with Epsilon Esports. While he wasn’t playing in that specific match, he did bet against his team.
Kieran Holmes-Darby, Excel Esports chief gaming officer and co-founder, told Esports News UK: “At Excel we have done our due diligence and are comfortable that Morgan will uphold our brand values and belief in the Power of Better.
“With our focus on improvement never stopping, we want to give him an opportunity to reignite his career and move on to pastures new.”
Excel now fields teams in League of Legends, Fortnite and Valorant. In 2021 Excel have signed new partnerships with Chupa Chups, Eleiko and Beyond NRG, and Excel won their first-ever NLC League of Legends Spring Split trophy for BT Excel.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
