G2 Esports player leaf expected to return for VALORANT Champions 2025

G2 Esports player Nathan ‘leaf’ Orf has shared a health update, leaving fans hopeful that he could return to the active roster for VALORANT Champions 2025.

The sentinel expert has been absent from G2 throughout the Esports World Cup and VCT Americas Stage 2 due to health complications.

Leaf has been part of G2 Esports since 2023, when the team won Ascension Americas to advance to the VCT circuit. 

This season, in particular, the American player gained recognition as one of the cornerstones of G2’s VALORANT roster. His consistency and game sense in the sentinel role helped his team win VCT Americas Kickoff and Stage 2. However, G2 failed to claim its first international trophy this year, finishing second and fourth at Masters Bangkok and Toronto, respectively.

Thanks to its consistent performances throughout the year, G2 became the first team to qualify for VALORANT Champions. Having earned 27 VCT Americas Points already, the squad is next headed to Paris, where the final international VCT event of the year will take place from September 12th until October 5th.

After the team’s run at Masters Toronto, G2 announced that leaf would not attend the Esports World Cup due to “health issues”. Instead, Assistant Coach Peter ‘shhhack’ Belej subbed in while leaf underwent treatment.

When leaf had to extend his hiatus across VCT Stage 2, G2 signed VALORANT player and caster Andrej ‘babybay’ Francisty as a stand-in.

This move proved successful as the squad has only lost its opening match against Sentinels in Stage 2 and is now seeking revenge in the Upper Bracket Final on August 30th.

G2 might return to its best form for the most important VALORANT competition of the year. In his X (formerly Twitter) post yesterday, leaf revealed that he is out of the hospital and, will hopefully recover soon from his health issues.

The player also shared additional details about his complications post-Toronto: “I have had Crohn’s Disease and in the past month or so was suffering probably the worst flare up/symptoms since my diagnosis when I was 9-10, which led to me having little to no energy most of the days and not eating/drinking anything with insufferable pain.”

In a second post, leaf explained that his Crohn’s disease flared up when he experienced complications with his ankylosing spondylitis and sacroiliitis after Masters Toronto.

Moreover, leaf thanked those who have supported him throughout his health struggles: “I know a lot of people have DMed me on here/discord and given support and I’ve seen all of it and just wanted to say thank you even if I didn’t take the time to respond to it…”

“I’ve been watching prac and off and on playing but ofc big shoutout to my boys and babybay for holding it down and making sure nobody takes us down undeserved.”