On Thursday, via an announcement from its CEO, Kamel "Kameto" Kebir live on Twitch, followed by a message on his X account, Karmine Corp announced the end of its Challengers France roster. Launched last year, this team was supposed to be an academic team for Karmine Corp in VALORANT and train young players in the French league.

Although the club does not rule out returning with a new academy in the coming years, Kameto justifies this choice by a decision to "do less, have fewer teams, fewer players" to focus on other teams. This announcement was made at the same time as the cessation of the club's activities on Street Fighter, as well as the postponement of the KCX.

A full year with high potential players

Kameto insists that it is important for the club "to have academies in our Tier 1 games. It has already worked in the past." The team consisted of five players with little to no experience in VCL. The roster was formed by Manuel "Ease" López, Roman "f4ngeer" Smirnov, Ethan "Sevire" Starke, David "soren" Soth, and Baptiste "Yohpa" Khoury.

Despite the fact that the team would not be allowed to participate in the Ascension at the end of the season, it quickly establishes itself as one of the best teams in VCL France. They finished as semi-finalists in Stage 1 and finalists in Stage 2 with an almost perfect run. Some players, like Soren or Yohpa, show great individual skills at times. Despite a poorer performance in Stage 3, the team remains interesting due to the individual level of some players.

Allowed to explore their options since the end of Stage 3, most of the players are still looking for a team for the year 2026. Only f4ngeer has already found a new home. He will be promoted to VCT in another region since he will join the All Gamers roster in VCT China, as previously reported by Sheep Esports. Other profiles like his could have emerged if the club had kept its academic team, but that will ultimately not be the case for the moment.