Team Vitality have made the first off-season changes to their VALORANT lineup, announcing the signing of Blendi “kovaQ” Kovaci and Bartosz “UNFAKE” Bernacki.
To make room for the two new arrivals, the France-based team benched Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel and Clément “CyvOph” Millard, who has been loaned out to Joblife.
Vitality explained that Sayf requested to step down from the active lineup, forcing them to search for new options.
While Vitality found a new in-game leader in UNFAKE, they were also impressed with kovaQ during tryouts.
His arrival comes at the expense of CyvOph, who was moved to the inactive position to make room for the Swiss player.
UNFAKE started his VALORANT esports career in 2021 with Invicta Gaming and Team Questo before playing for ZERANCE and Joblife.
Despite never appearing in the EMEA’s top league, the Polish player has accumulated strong placements in the Spanish, French, and EMEA’s VALORANT Challengers leagues.
KovaQ joined his first professional team, Sissi State Punks, in late 2022 before spending nearly two years with ALTERNATE aTTaX.
With the German team he proved to be a highly adaptable flex player, making him a good fit for Vitality’s new project.
“After carefully testing multiple players and compositions, it became clear that the lineup reached its highest potential with both UNFAKE and kovaQ in the starting five,” read the announcement.
The roster changes follow Team Vitality’s disappointing display in VCT 2025 EMEA Stage 1, where they failed to live up to expectations after a gold medal from the Kickoff tournament and a fourth-place finish at VALORANT Masters Bangkok 2025.
In Stage 1, Vitality finished Group Alpha with a 2-3 record before suffering a round-one elimination from the playoffs at the hands of FUT Esports.
Their woes continued into the EMEA Esports World Cup 2025 qualifiers, where Vitality crashed out in seventh-eighth place with defeats against FUT Esports and Gentle Mates.
Having failed to qualify for VALORANT Masters Toronto 2025, Vitality are on an extended break which will end on July 1 with the start of VCT 2025 EMEA Stage 2.
