Vitality bench BONECOLD

Team Vitality has made another big statement following their departure from the EMEA LCQ. The French organization has decided to bench their Finnish IGL, Santeri "BONECOLD" Sassi. Vitality expressed thanks for BONECOLD's works and stressed that the decision was made ahead of an overhaul for the upcoming VCT season.

Vitality bench its IGL, BONECOLD

The only two players who remained in Vitality's 2023 lineup were BONECOLD and Jokbas "ceNder" Labutis. For the inaugural season of the VCT partnership this year, the team added Karel "Twisten" Aenbrener and the OG LDN UTD team of Micha "MOLSI" Łącki and Tomas "Destrian" Linikas.

After initially joining them in the mid-season shuffle of 2022, BONECOLD spent more than a year with the Golden Hornets. In the second half of the year, Vitality was swiftly led by the former world champion to the VRL France trophy, and he carried that momentum all the way to the VRL Finals' championship match. Turkey representive FUT Esports eventually won the championship with 3-2.

In EMEA, Vitality achieved two top-six finishes under BONECOLD's leadership after achieving just one victory in Sao Paulo's LOCK//IN. With a 4-5 record, the team placed sixth overall in the VCT EMEA regular season, which was the last playoff spot. They exit the playoffs in the same order as they entered, which dropped them to the EMEA LCQ.

The announcement is made just a few days before the VCT EMEA LCQ begins. After Twisten's passing, uncertainty surrounded Vitality's participation in the LCQ, but the group revealed on June 21 that Riot Games had given them permission to withdraw from the qualifier as the team was still grieving Twisten. Riot revealed the new EMEA LCQ format a week or so later.

After BONECOLD hitting the bench, Team Vitality is now composed of:

• Jokūbas "ceNder" Labutis
• Tomas "Destrian" Linikas
• Michał "MOLSI" Łącki
• Salah "salah" Barakat (Head Coach)
• Harry "Gorilla" Mepham (Assistant Coach)
• Joseph "Strong" Edwards (Positional Coach)