Team Vitality have parted ways with Derke six days after the Champions final, and Paper Rex have given d4v41 permission to find a new team after almost six years. They are the two biggest names on a list of departures that has grown every day since Champions Shanghai ended, with most 2026 contracts set to run out on November 2.
Updated October 27: Gentle Mates have parted ways with their entire roster, record-breaking marteen included, and DetonatioN FocusMe have let Caedye and yatsuka explore their options. Both are added below.
Vitality said goodbye to the Finn on Saturday evening with a video and a short message that put his two years with the club in one sentence: “You brought us our first VCT trophy, took us to our first Champions Grand Finals, and never stopped fighting for more.”
The trophy was VCT 2025 EMEA Kickoff, won 3-2 against Team Liquid in February 2025, less than four months after Derke arrived from FNATIC. The grand final came on October 18 in Shanghai, where LOUD beat Vitality 3-1. Without him, Vitality’s roster lists four players: Jamppi, PROFEK, Chronicle and Sayonara. The club is one of the eight EMEA organisations that keep a partner seat for 2027.
A runner-up finish and then the exit
Derke’s two seasons in yellow went in opposite directions. The 2025 lineup, with Less and Sayf alongside him, finished fourth at Masters Bangkok and then slid down the EMEA table, going out in the top eight of both regional stages and missing Champions altogether.
Vitality rebuilt for 2026 with Chronicle from FNATIC and Jamppi and PROFEK from BBL Esports. They were fifth at Kickoff while they waited for Sayonara to turn 18, then finished second in Stage 1 and fourth at Masters London. A top eight exit in the Stage 2 playoffs meant they only reached Champions as EMEA’s fourth seed on points. In Shanghai, the only team that beat them was the eventual champion.
At 23, Derke has two international trophies, and Champions is the one big title missing. With FNATIC from 2021 to 2024 he lifted the trophy at LOCK//IN São Paulo and Masters Tokyo in 2023, reached the Masters Reykjavík final in 2021 and won both EMEA stages in 2024. The second of those titles came with a 3-1 win over Vitality in July 2024, three months before he joined the team he had just beaten. Vitality did not say where he is heading next.
Paper Rex open the door for d4v41
d4v41 made his own announcement on Saturday morning. Paper Rex have allowed him to look elsewhere as his contract nears its end.
The Malaysian has been with Paper Rex since 2021, when he made the jump from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive together with f0rsakeN. That year he became the first player from Malaysia to qualify for a VCT international event, at Masters Berlin. Since then he has been one of the team’s main leaders, winning Masters Toronto in 2025 and four Pacific titles in the partnership era and playing in five international grand finals. Two of those finals came this year, at Masters Santiago and Masters London, and both ended in defeat. Champions Shanghai ended in the top eight.
He is not the only one looking around. Three hours before d4v41’s post, assistant coach Wendler wrote that he wants a head coach job after nearly a year with the team. “I’m contracted through the end of the month, but PRX has allowed me to start talking to teams early ahead of FA,” he wrote. Paper Rex keep their partner seat, and their roster now lists four players (f0rsakeN, invy, Jinggg and something), with alecks as head coach.
Gentle Mates let everyone go, marteen included
The biggest name to join the list since then is marteen. On Sunday evening, Gentle Mates thanked all five of their players in one post: marteen, starxo, Minny, Proxh and H1ber. Head coach KUNDIKUNDI and coach Mavera are leaving too, according to VLR.
It is the French organisation’s second rebuild from scratch in as many seasons. After finishing at the bottom of EMEA in 2025, Gentle Mates kept only Minny and brought in starxo as in-game leader alongside marteen, bipo and GLYPH, with pakko as head coach. That lineup finished second at EMEA Kickoff 2026 and reached Masters Santiago, the club’s first international event, and on the way the 22-year-old Czech put up 126 kills in a five-map series against FNATIC, a VCT record for a best-of-five. In Santiago, Gentle Mates went 2-2 and left in the top eight.
They never got back to the international stage. After a 2-3 group stage in Stage 1, the club parted with pakko and promoted KUNDIKUNDI to head coach. GLYPH made way for the returning Proxh after a 0-2 exit in the Stage 1 playoffs, Stage 2 brought another 2-3 group stage, and H1ber replaced bipo before the play-ins, where Eintracht Frankfurt ended the season. Gentle Mates are one of the EMEA organisations with a partner seat for 2027, so they will build their third roster in three seasons with their place in the league secure.
Who has left since Champions
| Player or coach | Team | Status | Announced |
|---|---|---|---|
 marteen,  starxo, Minny,  Proxh,  H1ber |  Gentle Mates | Departures announced | October 25 |
| KUNDIKUNDI, Mavera (coaches) | Gentle Mates | Departures announced | October 25 |
 Caedye | DetonatioN FocusMe | Restricted free agent, allowed to explore options | October 25 |
| Derke |  Team Vitality | Departure announced | October 24 |
| ara | GIANTX | Looking for a team, contract ending | October 24 |
 d4v41 |  Paper Rex | Allowed to explore options, contract ending | October 24 |
| shhhack (assistant coach) |  G2 Esports | Exploring options, still under contract | October 24 |
| Wendler (assistant coach) | Paper Rex | Looking for a head coach role | October 24 |
| aspas, Verno, zekken, Mazino |  MIBR | Moved to inactive, open to offers | October 23 |
| primmie | FULL SENSE | Looking for a team, contract ending | October 23 |
| yoman (coach) |  Nongshim RedForce | Looking for a team | October 23 |
| eKo, SyouTa, Absol | ZETA DIVISION | Allowed to explore options | October 22 |
| yatsuka | DetonatioN FocusMe | Allowed to explore options | October 22 |
| Meteor |  T1 | Looking for a team, contract ending | October 22 |
| MaKo, BeYN, free1ng, HYUNMIN | KIWOOM DRX | Released | October 22 |
| keiko |  NRG | Restricted free agent | October 21 |
| Wo0t |  Team Heretics | Departure announced | October 21 |
MIBR start again from zero
No partner has gone further than MIBR. On Friday the Brazilian organisation moved aspas, Verno, zekken and Mazino to the inactive roster and made them available for transfer. tex had already announced his free agency last month, so MIBR have no active players left. The club pointed to the changes to the competitive structure in 2027, including the regional shift that comes with them.
The roster was built to reunite the 2024 LEVIATÁN core around aspas and Verno, and it came with superteam expectations. Instead, MIBR lost three best-of-five qualification matches in a row at Kickoff, finished in the top six of both Stage 1 and Stage 2, and reached none of the three VCT global events in 2026.
Coaches and Pacific rosters on the move
G2 Esports’ assistant coach shhhack is also exploring his options after more than three years with the team. G2 won four Americas titles in that time but never an international trophy. He made clear that nothing is settled, writing that he is “still under contract and in discussions with G2 about the future”.
At Nongshim RedForce, coach yoman is leaving after one year in which the team won Masters Santiago, its first international trophy, and later played its first Champions. Nongshim missed out on a partner seat and have already parted with Sungmin and allowed Masters Santiago MVP Dambi to look elsewhere.
The Pacific has more names on the list. ZETA DIVISION, who kept their partner seat after missing all three international events in 2026, have let eKo, SyouTa and Absol explore their options. primmie, who led VCT Pacific with a 1.24 rating in Stage 1, is looking for a team as his FULL SENSE contract runs out. Japan’s DetonatioN FocusMe, who missed out on a partner seat but say they will stay in Valorant, have let Caedye and yatsuka look for new teams after their first VCT season. The two 19-year-olds arrived together from Challengers side RIDDLE ORDER in January. Caedye, who moved from a flex role into Sentinel and secondary Controller duties during the year, wrote that he is looking for a team that needs him and is ready to give it everything. DFM finished fifth at Kickoff and fell just short of the Stage 2 playoffs after a defeat to T1.
In EMEA, ara is set to leave GIANTX after two seasons, a stint that included the organisation’s run to the playoffs at Champions Paris in 2025.
Earlier in the week, Meteor announced that he is looking for a team as his T1 contract expires. He won Masters Shanghai in 2024 with Gen.G and was MVP when T1 won Masters Bangkok in 2025, and he is open to offers from Korea, China and Japan. keiko is leaving NRG after one season, Wo0t has left Team Heretics after three years, and KIWOOM DRX released seven players and three coaches, MaKo among them, after missing out on a partner seat.
The November 2 deadline
Many of the names above are still under contract for a few more days. VCT contracts for 2026 expire on November 2, when free agency opens, and the open qualifiers for Kickoff 2027 start in North America and Europe on November 5. For the teams rebuilding, and for Derke and d4v41, that leaves very little time between the end of one season and the start of the next.
