With the French Challengers season coming to an end, teams are starting to reshuffle, and it’s Valiant who are the first to make a move. On Tuesday, August 19, Rikardo "WACKIE" Birjukov and Yaroslav "Jady" Nikolaev officially announced the conclusion of their contracts with the French organization.

Their departures follow closely after Adil "elemeNt" Maufroid, the head coach since the beginning of the year, revealed that he was seeking new opportunities before his deal expires in September. The same goes for Sohan "NeskaaS" Bessassa, who has been part of the roster as a player since January 2023.

This wave of exits is hardly surprising for Valiant—just as it is for many other projects—since their competitive season effectively ended in early August. For teams that failed to qualify for the EMEA Challengers, the only events left on the calendar are offseason tournaments (such as Project Blender) before the national leagues return at the end of October. This period provides a natural window for restructuring and rethinking strategy on VALORANT.

Changes that worked

After a strong 2024, this year proved to be slightly underwhelming for the club. Financial struggles, which the organization openly acknowledged, certainly didn’t help, although Valiant still managed to claim the French Challengers Split 2 title, defeating the Karmine Corp academy squad in the grand final. Earlier in the year, however, the French side had finished a disappointing 5th-6th place in Split 1, which prompted changes to the roster, most notably with the arrival of Jady.

With the Russian player on board, Valiant finally captured their first-ever domestic title. The return to the top was short-lived, though, as they fell early in the EMEA Challengers Split 2 group stage, losing to UCAM and to Enterprise Esports—the eventual winners of the tournament. Following that campaign, it was the Estonian WACKIE who joined the team for the final stretch of 2025. His run with the roster came to an end against Mandatory, in a thrilling lower bracket final decided 3-2.

Given these results and the missed qualification for both the new EMEA Challengers iteration and Ascension, the French organization is now entering a rebuilding phase. Coach elemeNt and NeskaaS have been benched while the management looks for new talent. As for WACKIE and Jady, both players have decided to move on to new opportunities with the expiration of their contracts.