For many of the teams that failed to qualify for Paris Champions, the end of their VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) 2025 season marks a chance to restructure. Almost no one is safe from potential roster changes, including the 2021 world champion, Turkish superstar Mehmet “cNed” İpek, who’s now marked as “inactive” on the FUT Esports roster.

In the EMEA region, FUT Esports had a below-average season, ending in 8th place on the VCT leaderboards. In its defense, VCT EMEA is incredibly competitive, to the point where Team Heretics almost didn’t make it to Champions Paris.

With its season now over, FUT Esports can just watch Champions Paris (September 12 – October 5) unfold like the rest of us. And for cNed, a new home might be on the horizon.

cNed open to offers from all VCT regions

For the uninitiated, cNed won the first-ever VCT world championship, also known as Champions 2021, with Acend in Berlin, Germany. The legendary squad tore through the competition before beating Gambit Esports in an incredibly close 3-2 Grand Final.

While we won’t see cNed take to the stage at Champions Paris like former world champion Maximillian “Demon1” Mazanov is doing as a stand-in for Chinese powerhouse Dragon Ranger Gaming, the Turkish star did announce on X that he is open to offers from all regions.

“As my contract with FUT is expiring, I’m allowed to explore my options for 2026, while they are considering their plans about the roster for future. I am open for all offers from all regions in Duelist role,” he said. 

The announcement comes two years after first joining FUT Esports. In the 2024 season, the team placed 3rd at VCT EMEA Stage 1 and earned a 5th/6th place finish at Masters Shanghai.

At Champions 2024, FUT Esports crashed out with a 0-2 record in the Group Stage, a disappointing end to the season. This 13th-16th place finish in Seoul would be cNed’s last appearance at an international event.

In the 2025 season, FUT Esports only managed an 8th-place finish on the VCT EMEA leaderboard, failing to qualify for Masters Bangkok, Masters Toronto, the EWC, and Champions Paris.

On January 5, 2025, cNed announced that he was taking a break from competitive play, but remained on the FUT Esports roster. He returned to the active roster on July 14, replacing Ata “ATA KAPTAN” Tan. However, cNed primarily played as Omen, instead of his Duelist role.

We can’t help but wonder where cNed will end up for the 2026 season, whether he will stay in the EMEA region or move to Americas, China, or Pacific. The 23-year-old Turkish star clearly wants to go back to the Duelist role, and there should definitely be some options available for a past world champion.