PLAYER1 steps down from Version1

Keven "PLAYER1" Champagne has stepped down from Version1, the organization announced Friday.

After being signed in February, Version1 have just begun to string together their best results yet. In Stage 2 VCT 2021 - Stage 2 - North America - Challengers 1, they reached top four with wins over Built By Gamers and Cloud9, qualifying themselves for VCT 2021 - Stage 2 - North America - Challengers Finals and securing a top 8 spot for VCT Stage 2. Accordingly, PLAYER1 clarified that his decision had nothing to do with their results, and was instead for personal reasons.

Always a solid Sentinel player, PLAYER1 will be hard for Version1 to replace. A report from Ryan Friend has ex-Ghost Gaming player Maxim "wippie" Shepelev joining the roster in the interim. This matches up with tweets from the player in question lately as well.

A Version1 roster with wippie in place of PLAYER1 would definitely be strong. And with some time before Challengers Finals, there isn't a much better time for the moves to be made as they'll have time to integrate wippie into the team. But will they have as high of highs in the big event?

All this leaves Version1’s roster as:

Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro Erik “penny” Penny Loic “effys” Sauvageau Anthony “vanity” Malasplina Maxim “wippie” Shepelev (Reported)

Ian “Immi” Harding (Coach)