Acend have dropped Vladyslav “Kiles” Shvets from their VALORANT roster, the team announced on Thursday. Kiles had previously been benched by the organization on April 4.
“He was with us from the very beginning and took us all the way to Champions,” the announcement read. “We thank him for everything that he has done, and wish him nothing but the best in his next adventure.”
Kiles had been with Acend since March 2021, when the organization entered VALORANT. Prior to joining, he played on Raised Your Edge Gaming. After acquiring Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt, Acend began to find more and more success as one of the top teams in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
In 2021, Acend became the first ever winners of VALORANT Champions, toppling Gambit Esports in the grand final. Since that time, the team has struggled to find consistent results. After failing to make the 2022 VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 1 Challengers playoffs, the team began to change their roster.
The team started their rebuild by benching their in-game leader, Santeri “BONECOLD” Sassi, who is still an inactive member of the roster. Kiles was benched shortly after. Both players are now free to explore options ahead of the beginning of Stage 2.
Today, we say goodbye to @Kiles71.
He was with us from the very beginning and took us all the way to champions. We thank him for everything that he has done, and wish him nothing but the best in his next adventure🤝
Buena Suerte, Kilesito pic.twitter.com/ORlnZj790i
— ACEND CLUB (@AcendClub) April 28, 2022
Kiles is a 24-year-old Ukrainian-Spanish VALORANT pro. He has filled a number of different roles during his tenure playing VALORANT, but he typically plays Sentinel or Controller agents like Cypher, Viper and Killjoy.
Acend’s current active roster consists of:
- Mehmet Yağız “cNed” İpek
- Patryk “starxo” Kopczyński
- Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt
The team will need to find two additional players to fill out their roster ahead of the start of EMEA Stage 2 Challengers, which begins on May 13. They join Fnatic as the other notable EMEA team still in the middle of a rebuild between Stages.
