Valorant superstar Erick ‘aspas’ Santos is reportedly unhappy with Leviatán after the organization benched his teammate and has tried to leave the team.
aspas was the most sought-after player on the market during the 2023/24 off-season. The Brazilian Duelist was incredible for LOUD in 2022, helping the team to a Valorant Champions title, and in 2023, winning the VCT Americas MVP and the league title.
His contract with LOUD ended after the 2023 season concluded and the young prodigy sought a new challenge. He eventually signed with the VCT Americas side Leviatán in October 2023.
The Latin American organization has since built a robust squad around him including IGL Francisco ‘kiNgg’ Aravena, and supporting stars Ian ‘tex’ Botsch, Roberto ‘Mazino’ Bugueño and Agustin ‘Nozwerr’ Ibarra.
Leviatán, however, announced the benching of Nozwerr on January 4, 2024, after the team had already been together and practicing for some time. This move has reportedly upset aspas and caused him to try to exit the team.
Leviatán and aspas reportedly at odds over Valorant roster
According to a report from the manager of the roster news leaker Noyn, Gabriel Pedreira, aspas tried to exit Leviatán after the team benched Nozwerr, but chose to stay because the fine for breaking his contract is “extremely high” and to remain professional with the organization.
The news was posted to social media from another account that runs a news page covering LOUD. Pedreira confirmed the news came from him in a reply to the post.
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“Behind the scenes, there is not a favorable atmosphere with colleagues,” the post said via a machine translation.
The post has since been deleted.
aspas has not confirmed the report, leaving what exactly happened behind the scenes up in the air. However, aspas praised Nozwerr didn’t seem happy with the news that his teammate was removed from the starting roster, and Nozwerr himself spoke about how he’d miss playing with aspas.
If aspas’ response is anything to go off of, the feeling’s mutual.
Esse post de hoje esta sendo muito difícil pra mim, queria deixar claro a todos o quão incrível e dedicado o Nzr é, fala 3 línguas alem de se comunicar super bem, então todas as organizações que tiverem interesse nele nao tenham duvidas o Nzr é muito bom. Espero jogar com voce de… https://t.co/DnZabHTtOi
— LEV aspas 🌪️ (@aspaszin) January 4, 2024
“This post today is very difficult for me, I wanted to make it clear to everyone how incredible and dedicated Nzr is, he speaks 3 languages in addition to communicating very well, so all organizations that are interested in him have no doubts, Nzr is very good… I’m not a member of the organization, I’m just a player. I hope you understand,” aspas said on social media.
Nozwerr’s replacement has not been announced by the team at the time of writing. The team is rumored to be signing Valorant Champions winner Corbin ‘C0M’ Lee, who has hinted at a move away from Evil Geniuses on social media.