Team Liquid announces the departure of Keiko

Team Liquid has officially announced that they have parted ways with star Controller player Georgio "Keiko" Sanassy ahead of the VCT 2026 season.

Keiko first joined Team Liquid at the start of the VCT 2024 season following his run with Apeks in tier two EMEA. During his time with the organization, Keiko was widely regarded as one of the stars of Team Liquid all throughout the VCT 2025 season. He was a leading factor in how Team Liquid was able to make a miracle run to VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Bangkok 2025 and was reliable as a star player on the team. However, the team struggled to capitalize on Keiko’s strong performances on a consistent basis.

Team Liquid’s international struggles in 2025

The 2025 season is one that saw Team Liquid qualify for all three international VCT events. However, the team was unable to replicate that success on the international stage. They were unable to make a deep run at VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Valorant Champions despite winning VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - EMEA Stage 2 right before that tournament.

Since Champions Paris, Team Liquid has been making several changes to their team going into the 2026 season. The organization had already parted ways with both Patryk "paTiTek" Fabrowski and Nikita "trexx" Cherednichenko earlier this offseason. Keiko’s departure now leaves Team Liquid with just two remaining players from their VCT 2025 lineup.

What team is Keiko joining next?

As for Keiko, he is slated to join reigning world champions NRG ahead of the VCT 2026 to replace veteran player Sam "s0m" Oh, who announced his break from competitive VALORANT.

It will be interesting to see how the EMEA superstar slots into playing on the VCT Americas stage. For now, he will use this offseason period to rest and adjust into playing with his new VCT Americas team.

Be sure to follow THESPIKE.GG for more VALORANT offseason news like this heading into the VCT 2026 season.

Photo by Colin Young Wolff/Riot Games