Acend Decided To Bench Kiles

So, it is now official – Acend has decided to bench Vladyslav "Kiles" Shvets, a player who specialized in playing Controller and Sentinel Agents, and thus had a significant role in the roster. After Acend failed to qualify for the VCT Stage 1 Masters tournament, the organization decided to bench Santeri "BONECOLD" Sassi, so for now, the team has only 3 players, and VCT Stage 2 starts in less than a month. Let's see why Acend decided to make such decision.

Why Acend Benched Kiles?

Just as BONECOLD may have been benched for a somewhat unsatisfactory performance at VCT Challengers, here we think Kiles' case is more due to events in Ukraine.

After evaluating our ongoing path in Valorant, we have decided to move @Kiles71 to the bench. He remains under contract, but is free to explore other options. We want to express our deepest gratitude for his professionalism, excellence, and friendship.

— Acend (@AcendClub) April 4, 2022

There is no official statement from Acend about this, but the inability to send a player to LAN tournaments is definitely something inconvenient for the organization. We see this in the case of FunPlus Phoenix, who despite winning the entire VCT Challengers, could not make it to the LAN in Reykjavik.

Who Will Step In For Kiles?

Sources say that the team is testing two new players that are currently Free Agents, these are:

• Yiğithan "DeepMans" Kesici (ex-Wave Esports)
• David "Fizzy" Figueiredo (ex-Team BDS)

If that turns out to be true, then the Acend roster for VCT Stage 2 will look as follows:

What do you think about it? Do you consider this roster strong enough to qualify for a Stage 2 major? Reach us on our Instagramand Discord, and let's chat!