Mass Valorant roster changes in preparation for VCT 2026 season
It has been just over two weeks since NRG won Valorant Champions 2025 to end the VCT season.
And yet, there have been a ton of roster changes as teams prepare for the 2026 VCT season.
Today alone, three different teams from VCT Pacific have announced the departure of players as new rosters get built.
VCT Pacific champions Paper Rex say goodbye to mindfreak
Paper Rex have parted ways with long-serving player Aaron ‘mindfreak‘ Leonhart after their top four finish at Champions Paris.
mindfreak joined Paper Rex when they were founded in 2020 and represented the orgainsation in both Valorant and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO).
He spent five years with the organisation but was mostly an unused substitute this year and was added to the inactive roster back in July.
This was just after Paper Rex’s shock Valorant Masters Toronto victory.
For that event and many others, mindfreak was instead sitting alongside head coach Alexandre ‘alecks‘ Sallé.
Speaking about his free agency, mindfreak said:
“I’m ready to play after Stage 2, I’m taking my time here at home to prepare mentally and physically to compete again since my state of mind was in a really bad shape earlier this year.”
dos9 officially leaves BOOM Esports
Another Indonesian player has left a VCT Pacific team.
Dastan ‘dos9’ Zhumagali has left BOOM Esports after joining them in October last year.
This was just after BOOM Esports were promoted to VCT Pacific after Riot Games removed Ascension winners Bleed Esports from the tournament.
BOOM struggled in VCT, failing to qualify for any of the three international events.
After a 5-0 start to the Group Stage, Stage 1 looked promising but the team were then surpirsingly elimianted early in the Playoffs.
As a result of their lacklustre performances the organisation were demoted back to the Challenger Circuit for 2026.
The team are now restructuring leaving dos9 without a team.
However, according to Sheep Esports dos9 is expected to be offered a spot in VCT EMEA with Karmine Corp next year.
ZETA DIVISION confirm departure of CLZ and TenTen
Hikaru ‘CLZ’ Mizutani and Kim ‘TenTen’ Tae-young are officially gone from ZETA DIVISION.
CLZ is a former Fortnite pro and the Japenese star has transitioned well to the top level of Valorant.
Meanwhile, Korean pro TenTen is the younger brother of T1 star Kim ‘Meteor’ Tae-oh and played for T1’s academy himself.
ZETA DIVISION have struggled in recent years, though they are partnered in VCT Pacific until 2027.
The team placed third at Masters Reykjavík 2022 and attended Champions that year.
However, ZETA has failed to qualify for another international tournament since.
Though they were the only team to defeat eventual winners Paper Rex in VCT Pacific Stage 2.
