Sources - VALORANT: Guardy set to return to Barca eSports

According to sources close to Sheep Esports, Antonio "Guardy" Guardiola will join Barca eSports for the 2026 Challengers Spain season. The 21-year-old player would therefore return to play for the team he already played for in 2024 and with whom he had won a split. Guardy will be the first signing for Barca, as the team is expected to continue with Adolfo "Fit1nho" Gallego and with coaches Juan Carlos "meisoN" Chacón and Victor "Xikii" Garcia, as previously reported by Sheep Esports.

Present in the Spanish first division for three years now, Guardy had joined KOI Fénix, the academic team of Movistar KOI, for the year 2025. With Guardy as a flex player, the team notably won the second and third splits of Challenger Spain and even reached third place in Challengers EMEA at Stage 2. However, following Movistar KOI's departure from VALORANT, the KOI Fénix players must find a new team.

On their part, Barca eSports is coming off a more complicated year. With a team composed of Kacper "Krejzzs" Furtak, Christian "Lowel" Garcia, Tomas "Vorwenn" Baldrich, and Daniel "Saiz" Ruiz, the Catalan team finished the first split in sixth place. The team dropped to ninth place in the second split, forcing them to play a relegation qualifier match to stay in the league. Despite an improvement in the third split, Barca eSports finished as semi-finalists, losing 2-0 against… KOI Fénix. It was not enough to hope to play the Challenger Spain finals as well as the Challenger EMEA.

But the team hopes to achieve better results next year with the return of Guardy, who will thus be the second player secured by the team along with Fit1nho. With these two elements, the Catalans hope to start on a good footing by combining one of their best players from last season with a player who has previously brought them a title.