2021 Valorant World Champion Vladyslav “Kiles” Shvets will be removed from the Acend line-up and moved to the bench, sources have told Dexerto.
The 24-year-old Ukrainian-Spanish player made an incredible start to his adventure at Acend as the European team won the 2021 VCT: Europe Stage 1 Masters. This came as a huge surprise to many at the time, as the main favorites were FunPlus Phoenix and Team Heretics, the European First-Strike winner. Acend’s biggest achievement, however, was triumphing in the VCT Champions last year.
A huge surprise was Acend’s failure to even make the playoffs in Group B, a major disappointment for a team of this caliber. After an unsuccessful run in the VCT 2022 Stage 1: EMEA Challengers, Acend are making changes to the current roster.
Kiles to be benched from Acend
After more than a year together, Acend has decided to bench two players.
On March 23, Santeri “BONECOLD” Sassi was officially moved to the bench and Aleksander ‘zeek’ Zygmunt took over as In-Game Leader. However, this was not the last change, with Kiles now set to also be moved to the sidelines. This also aligns with a report from Dot Esports, that Acend is training without Kiles.
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Update, April 4, 12:10PM EST: Acend confirms Kiles benching.
After evaluating our ongoing path in Valorant, we have decided to move @Kiles71 to the bench. He remains under contract, but is free to explore other options. We want to express our deepest gratitude for his professionalism, excellence, and friendship.
— ACEND CLUB (@AcendClub) April 4, 2022
In recent days, Ondřej “MONSTEERR” Petrů, Vakaris “vakk” Bebravičius, Yiğithan “DeepMans” Kesici, Tautvydas “hype” Paldavicius and David “Fizzy” Figueiredo, among others, have reported for training at Acend. However, some of these players have already ended their participation, such as the 16-year-old Turk, DeepMans, who has returned to training with Wave Esports.
Acend roster
- Aleksander ‘zeek’ Zygmunt
- Patryk ‘starxo’ Kopczyński
- Mehmet Yağız ‘cNed’ İpek
- Vladyslav “Kiles” Shvets (Bench)
- Santeri “BONECOLD” Sassi (Bench)
- Laurynas ‘Nbs’ Kisielius (Coach)
- Milan ‘Milan’ de Meij (Analyst)
