Team Liquid and Team Heretics have announced they will field unconventional subs, a content creator and an assistant coach, for Week 6 of VCT EMEA.
It’s become a growing trend in professional Valorant for teams look to change up their rosters midseason, due to poor results or unforeseen circumstances.
Karmine Corp were the first team to run up against this problem as one of their players stepped down from the starting roster and the team had to play its assistant coach, Ahmed ‘ZE1SH’ Sheikh, because he was signed as their sixth man.
Both Team Liquid and Team Heretics announced that their Valorant teams will field substitutes for Week 6 of the VCT EMEA split, but have chosen some rather odd replacements.
VCT EMEA players to be replaced by unconventional subs
Heretics announced that Aleksander ‘zeek’ Zygmunt will be subbed out for the foreseeable future, citing team dynamics as the reason for the change.
In his place, though, Heretics will not use another professional player. Instead, assistant coach Brandon ‘weber’ Weber will take zeek’s place.
Update on our #VCTEMEA team: pic.twitter.com/8hC5tE5COC
— Team Heretics (@TeamHeretics) May 4, 2023
Liquid also announced a substitution for Saif ‘Sayf’ Jibraeel on May 4, but this will be for just one match due to illness. However, Liquid is also forgoing the competitive player route, subbing in content creator Nico ‘Harmii’ Harms.
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The reasons for these unusual subs are actually due to VCT rules.
As some of you may know, @DSajoof has been sick for the last couple of days and is unable to play tomorrow. However we are still playing thanks to @Harmii_ who will sub in for Sayf in our match vs NAVI 🙌Show Harmii that Liquid love and get well soon Sayf 💙
— Team Liquid Valorant (@LiquidValorant) May 4, 2023
Riot Games rules say a team must have six active players on its roster to compete in a VCT league. As a cost-saving measure, some teams decided to sign a member of their coaching staff as their sixth player instead of an active competitor.
This has caused teams like Karmine Corp and Heretics, who are on the verge of missing out on the VCT EMEA playoffs, to compete with these unconventional players.
Team Liquid, on the other hand, has used Harmii as an emergency sub as their sixth man Dmitriy ‘dimasick’ Matvienko (who has not been seen with Liquid since 2022 but is in the Global Contract Database with a contract expiring in 2023) is now listed as a reserve.
Fans will get to see each team’s results with their non-pro player substitutes on May 5 as Liquid takes on NAVI and Heretics face off against Giants.