Global Esports release ban and Elevated ahead of the VCT 2026 season

Global Esports has released Joseph Oh "Ban" Seung-min and Head Coach Elevated ahead of the VCT 2026 season.

Ban first joined Global Esports for the VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Pacific Stage 2 following his one-and-a-half-year tenure with TALON. While Global Esports initially signed him on a contract until the end of the VCT 2026 season, he will not be a part of the team’s rebuild going into next year.

The VCT 2025 season was one chock-full of controversy and confusion for Global Esports, which underwent multiple roster and coaching staff changes throughout the year. Now, Global Esports has fully set its sights on a complete rebuild of the team with the departures of ban and Head Coach Elevated ahead of the VCT 2026 season.

What’s next for ban and Elevated?

Prior to the VCT 2025 season, ban had qualified for every single VALORANT Champions since the start of the franchised leagues. However, during the VCT 2025 season the player was unable to achieve the same level of success as the past two years. While he began his season with a respectable fourth-place finish at VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Pacific Kickoff with TALON, he was dropped from the team ahead of VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Pacific Stage 1.

While he was able to salvage his year briefly by joining Global Esports, it wasn’t enough to make it back to the international stage. Ban will now look towards fielding offers ahead of the VCT 2026 season and see if he can land a spot on a Tier-1 squad. However, because it is late in the offseason, landing a team in the VCT Pacific might be a challenging task until the conclusion of next year's Kickoff.

As for Elevated, the VCT 2025 season represented a stressful process. After beginning the season as the Assistant Coach of Global Esports, he was thrust into the Head Coach role following Juv3nile’s one-year suspension from the league. Now, he will look towards his future as he sets his sights on making a return to the Tier-1 level with more preparation.

It will be interesting to see how Global Esports builds out the rest of their lineup going into the VCT 2026 season and if they can make a bid for domestic success in the region.

Be sure to follow THESPIKE.GG for more VALORANT offseason content like this as we head closer to the start of the VCT 2026 season.

Image via Riot Games Pacific