With a new format and numerous changes already planned for 2027, the
VALORANT competitive scene’s offseason is already shaping up to be a very unusual one, especially with organizations not even guaranteed to remain partnered for the next VCT cycle. G2 Esports and Leviatán player Francisco "
kiNgg" Aravena have the intention to join forces for the 2027 season once the off-season window opens, in place of Jacob “
valyn” Batio, sources tell
Sheep Esports. The change will therefore not take place before, or with a view to, Champions, as both organizations will respect the official timeline.
The agreement comes ahead of
VALORANT Champions Shanghai, scheduled to take place from October 24 to November 18 in China. The end-of-season tournament will feature G2 Esports as the fourth seed from the Americas region. After dominating the region in 2025 with three titles across three splits, G2 fell slightly short in 2026, while still remaining near the top of its league and securing appearances at all three international LAN events of the year.
A surprise success for Leviatán this year
After finishing second in the Americas Kickoff, the European organization, which competes in North America in VALORANT, qualified for Masters Santiago, where it finished just off the podium after a loss to Paper Rex in the lower bracket. Back in the regional league, G2 went on to win Stage 1, notably defeating Leviatán in the grand final. It was through that finish and the resulting qualification for Masters London that LEV returned to international competition after a blank 2025 season, while also securing its place at Champions after finishing its Kickoff in the middle of the standings.
In the English capital, however, G2 did not find the same momentum it had in Santiago, being eliminated upon entering the tournament after back-to-back defeats against Xi Lai Gaming and FUT Esports. The Seed 1 curse is something that happens fairly often at Masters, with teams struggling to find their footing in the tournament. At the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the Argentine organization secured a 2-0 qualification from the Swiss Stage, defeating Global Esports and NRG before being stopped by Paper Rex in the quarterfinals.
A one-day setback for LEV, which then completed a full lower-bracket run through the playoffs, picking up wins against Team Heretics, XLG, Team Vitality, and finally EDward Gaming to qualify for the grand final and face PRX, the Pacific region’s powerhouse. Against the Singaporean organization, Leviatán found itself backed into a corner at 1-2 but eventually won the next two maps to secure the title, marking its return to LAN competition since its last appearance at Champions 2024.
Controller for Controller
The success would ultimately be short-lived for LEV and
kiNgg, with the team once again finishing in the middle of the standings in Stage 2, placing fifth-sixth, and seeing its
VALORANT Champions Shanghai dreams disappear. The same applied to G2 Esports, which also finished just off the podium in fourth place. Qualification was decided through the points system, which runs throughout the competitive year and awards increasingly more points as the season progresses. Thanks to its strong results at the start of the year and its consistency among the top four teams in its region, G2 secured the fourth and final spot for China alongside NRG, with both teams finishing on 21 points. LEV finished fifth and was the first team outside the qualification spots, with 19 points.
This change, therefore, will come, as already mentioned at the beginning of the article, while Riot Games has already announced major changes to its
VALORANT Champions Tour circuit, including several key developments such as the near-complete opening of the circuit and a "reset" of partnered organizations across all regions. As a result, neither Leviatán nor G2 Esports is yet guaranteed to remain a partnered organization in
VCT Americas for 2027 and 2028. This does not appear to be stopping the latter from already preparing for what comes next, even as its players are set to compete at Worlds. The change would therefore be a direct positional swap between the American Controller currently playing for G2 and LEV’s Chilean Controller.
