Sources: 77even and hoody are set to join WIP Esports

According to sources close to Sheep Esports, Richard "77even" Venskevychius and Aaro "hoody" Peltokangas have reached a verbal agreement with WIP Esports for their VALORANT roster. Throughout 2025, 77even gained experience at various levels of the European regional scene. His documented competitive activity that year included a stint with Area51 in Challengers 2025: MENA Resilience Promotion/Relegation, in which the team finished as runners-up. He later appeared with GoFund4OmarHouse, notably at Project Blender 2025 Phases 1 and 2. Rather than being an already established upper-tier prospect, he is more accurately a young, aggressive Duelist whose visibility has been built through repeated appearances in multiple secondary regional competitions.

By contrast, hoody arrives more as a veteran figure. A former tier-one player for G2 Esports, and GIANTX in EMEA, the Finn had a very successful 2025 season with FOKUS. Highlights include a VCL DACH Stage 1 title, a Stage 2 finals appearance, and top-four finishes at Challengers EMEA Stage 1 and Stage 2. His recent trajectory confirms him as a player who is already well established within the Challengers ecosystem and who is capable of bringing structure, experience, and a far more developed level of game understanding than a player who is still purely in development.

For WIP Esports, these two signings would fit within the continuity of a 2025 season that saw the organization establish itself more credibly within the French ecosystem. The team competed across all three stages of VALORANT Challengers France: Revolution 2025 before reaching the Stage 3 playoffs, where its run ended in a 5th–6th place finish following losses to KC Blue Stars and then BLX CORP. At the start of 2026, during the first split, WIP managed to qualify for the playoffs despite losing their opening match. They then lost in the lower bracket final, falling 3-1 to Mandatory, the team led by influencer Adrien “ZeratoR” Nougaret.

In that context, betting on a duo such as 77even and hoody says something fairly clear about WIP’s intentions. On the one hand, there is a player still in the process of developing, already tested across several regional scenes and able to inject pace and initiative; on the other, an initiator already accustomed to the demanding standards of the EMEA circuit. By completing its five in this way, WIP Esports would be seeking to raise its competitive ceiling, with the ambition of turning a steady presence in VCL France into a genuine push toward the top end of the table in 2026.