ROC Esports x Sirsay

Completing the Trio: How Only Upwards Brought Sirsay to ROC Esports

Some signings are about star power. This one was about fit. When ROC Esports added sirsay to its Apex Legends roster, the move slotted a young, high-ceiling talent into an established core alongside Vaxlon and Sauceror, completing a trio built to compete in the ALGS. The work behind that decision belonged to Only Upwards, the talent agency that represented sirsay through the move.

Here is how it came together.

The brief: find the right piece, not just a big name

Building an Apex trio is a different challenge from signing a duo or a single headline player. A trio lives and dies on chemistry and role fit. Drop in the wrong personality or the wrong playstyle and even three strong individuals fail to gel. ROC already had its foundation in Vaxlon and Sauceror, two experienced competitors with years of ALGS pedigree between them. What the roster needed was not the loudest name on the market. It was the right third.

That made Only Upwards' job precise. The agency was not simply shopping a client to the highest bidder. It was matching a specific player to a specific gap, where the fit had to work competitively, tactically, and personally for the move to be worth making.

The talent: a rising teenager with a high ceiling

At seventeen, sirsay represents exactly the kind of upside organisations chase in Apex. Young, hungry, and already tested against top-tier competition through his time on the ALGS circuit, he brings the ceiling that veteran-heavy rosters often lack. Pairing that youth with Vaxlon's experience, including his standing as one of the scene's remaining elite MnK players, and Sauceror's competitive track record created a blend of proven savvy and raw potential.

For Only Upwards, that contrast was the selling point. A young player surrounded by veterans gets the structure and mentorship to develop, while the roster gains the long-term ceiling a teenager with this trajectory provides.

The match: ROC Esports and Veda Holding

ROC made sense as a destination on every level. Backed by Veda Holding, the organisation has built a serious, well-resourced Apex program with real ALGS tournament experience and prize-money pedigree behind it. For a young player, that infrastructure matters. It is the difference between being thrown into the deep end and being given the coaching, stability, and competitive runway to actually grow into a top-tier pro.

Only Upwards weighed the move with that long view in mind. The priority was never just getting sirsay onto a roster. It was getting him onto the right one, with established teammates to learn from and an organisation invested in developing him rather than simply filling a seat.

The work: turning a fit into a finished roster

Completing a trio means aligning more than one party. Only Upwards handled the parts that never appear in the announcement: confirming that the competitive and role fit with Vaxlon and Sauceror genuinely worked, negotiating terms that reflected sirsay's potential while respecting his stage in his career, and coordinating with ROC's management to lock the addition in cleanly ahead of the season's competition.

When the move was finalised on April 21, 2026, ROC had its third, and sirsay had a home built for his development rather than just his signature.

The outcome

The result was a roster made whole. A rising seventeen-year-old talent, placed alongside two seasoned ALGS competitors, inside an organisation with the backing and ambition to chase results at the highest level of Apex. For sirsay, it is a platform to grow on. For ROC, it is a trio with both a proven floor and a genuine ceiling.

That is what careful matchmaking looks like. The right player, in the right seat, at the right time. The only direction is upward.