According to sources close to Sheep Esports,
Team Vitality's VCT Head Coach Salah "
Salah" Barakat has been benched ahead of
VCT EMEA Stage 2. Team Vitality is evaluating different possibilities to improve their results for next split. According to sources, Salah, who has held his post since October 2022, was benched on Monday, marking the first decision made by the French team.
The new head coach has not been decided yet, and in the coming days, the transfer market will be explored. However, this does not guarantee a new signing for Team Vitality, as there is a strong possibility that the current assistant coach, Harry "Gorilla" Mepham, will be promoted to Head Coach of the VCT team.
Regarding players, it appears that there will be no changes to the roster, although Sheep Esports cannot confirm this 100% as it may depend on the coach that joins the team.
Unhappy ending in Stage 1
Team Vitality finished second in their group in the VALORANT Champions Tour 2024: EMEA Kickoff, behind Fnatic and ahead of Gentle Mates. However, they were eliminated in the Play-in stage by Karmine Corp, despite defeating KOI 2-0.
In the VCT EMEA League - Stage 1, they were in Group Alpha where all 5 teams finished with a record of 3 wins and 3 losses. Unfortunately, Team Vitality ended up last in the group due to map differential, with 7 maps won and 9 lost. Vitality had the opportunity to finish first of their group by defeating KOI in the last round, a team that had 4 losses and 0 wins at this time, but they ended up losing 2-1 and missed out on the play-offs.
