jcStani enters free agency, contract with Immortals ends

With the tenured Immortals VALORANT player letting his contract run its course, Noah “jcStani” Smith has entered free agency as of May 2.

One year ago, Immortals signed jcStani with its jump into VALORANT. The 21 year-old player has only played with Immortals in his time in VALORANT, outside of early amateur squads. Before the Riot Games tactical shooter, jcStani played high level Battalion 1944 and other FPS games.

“Had discussions with the team about re-signing but chose to test free agency,” he wrote in his Twitlonger announcement. “Contracts in esports are long; not many pros get this opportunity on their own terms.”

Thank you for all that you've brought to IMT VALORANT over the past year — we're wishing you the best in fielding opportunities, you'd be a great asset to any team.

— Immortals (@Immortals) May 3, 2021

jcStani on Immortals

Immortals chose jcStani from their scouting system, headed up by Jordan “Gunba” Graham and Michael “Packing10” Szklanny Sr. While he was chosen as the in-game leader for the early iterations of the team, those duties went to new players as Immortals brought in more new blood. JcStani has played multiple agent roles during the course of his career, but has stuck with Sentinels or Controllers for most of his games. He does have matches on Sage, and he recently stepped into the Duelist role on Jett.

With Immortals, jcStani competed in Ignition Series events, First Strike and both stages of the VALORANT Champions Tour. The team has not won a major tournament, but consistently placed in the top four or qualified for big events. In Stage 1 of the VCT, Immortals, with jcStani as their IGL, placed second and third at Challengers 1 and 2 respectively.

The team did not repeat that success at Masters 1, bombing out in the first round. For Stage 2, the team qualified for both Challengers events but failed to make Challengers Playoffs for a shot at the first international LAN event.

In his announcement, jcStani thanked his teammates. He also shouted out the only other Immortals player with same amount of tenure Amgalan “Genghsta” Nemekhbayar, and gave his pitch to teams in need of players.

“I have a flexible agent pool as controller/sentinel/duelist, have shown I can grind and learn whatever is needed for the team, and can IGL,” jcStani said. “I feel very confident I can fit into and help a variety of different team structures.”