Sources – VALORANT: shinnok and Pa1ze are set to join FOKUS

According to sources close to Sheep Esports, Magloczki Zsombor "shinnok" Viktor and Mohammad "Pa1ze" Khatib have reached a verbal agreement with FOKUS for the upcoming VALORANT 2026 season. In 2025, shinnok established himself as one of the Initiator/Flex players to watch on the NORTH//EAST circuit with Metizport. The Hungarian player competed across the entire Challengers 2025: NORTH//EAST cycle, as well as Challengers 2025: EMEA Stage 1. He rounded out his year with several appearances in EMEA offseason tournaments, most notably Monsters Reloaded 2025 with CGN Esports and Project Blender 2025: Spotlight with Falke Esports, where he reached yet another regional final.

Pa1ze, meanwhile, arrives off the back of a busy 2025 season with Gamax Esports on the MENA circuit. The Danish player played in Challengers 2025: MENA Resilience North Africa and Levant, securing a 2nd-place finish in the Split 1 playoffs and a 3rd place in Split 2. He also featured on the EMEA offseason circuit with a run at Project Blender 2025 Phase 2 under the Gamax banner. In this context, joining FOKUS in 2026 would represent a logical next step for him into a structured European league, after several years accumulating experience in East: Surge and then MENA.

For FOKUS, these two potential additions fall in line with the project already reported by Sheep Esports. The German organisation is rebuilding a roster around two former VCT EMEA players, Michał "MOLSI" Łącki and Maikls "Serial" Ždanovs. In 2025, FOKUS put together a strong season in VCL DACH, winning Stage 1 and qualifying for EMEA Ascension, where their run ultimately ended with a last-place finish in the group stage. Following that setback, FOKUS parted ways with its entire roster, with several figures moving on to VCT EMEA, including Félix "al0rante" Brandl to PCIFIC Esports and coach Jiří "KUNDIKUNDI" Honkala, reported to be joining Gentle Mates.

Within this framework, a roster built around the experienced MOLSI/Serial duo and reinforced by two rising profiles such as shinnok and Pa1ze outlines a project clearly oriented toward the top end of the table: a core that combines VCT experience, solid results in NORTH//EAST and MENA Challengers, and significant room for growth, with the stated ambition of turning FOKUS’s VCL DACH title into improved and more consistent results at the EMEA level.