The first Mid-Season roster move of VCT 2026 has come only 4 games into the season. VCT Americas newly ascended team, ENVY have dropped their sentinel player, Inspire, previously of FaZe and 100 Thieves. In his place they have signed the 2023 Champs LA MVP, Demon1, after his stint as a stand-in for Cloud9.
Demon1 has had a rough time since his time on Evil Geniuses where he won Champions LA as their MVP, on the second entry Jett/ controller role alongside Jawgemo, Boostio, C0M and Ethan. He then moved to NRG for the 2024 season, where his time got cut short and he was dropped just before Stage 2. For 2025, he signed for LEVIATAN, where he was also dropped at the end of Stage 1, remaining teamless until he was offered the opportunity to stand-in for Dragon Ranger Gaming during their VCT Champions Paris run, which ended with 2 back-to-back losses for the Chinese side.
Since then, he remained teamless and went into the VCT 2026 season not on a team at all, devoting his time to streaming doing watch parties, and playing VALORANT ranked.
This was until an unfortunate circumstance meant that OXY couldn’t play for Cloud9 for a weekend, allowing Demon1 to step in as an emergency stand-in, filling the Chamber/ Jett role, where he dominated teams like ENVY and LEVIATAN in his first games, top fragging both series.
This, presumably led teams to realise, not picking up Demon1 was a mistake given the fact that on little to no prep time, Demon1 was able to slot into the Cloud9 system and still frag out like it was 2023 again.
Whilst many fans thought he would get a spot going into Stage 1, Demon1 surprised fans with a shock announcement from ENVY, where they announced Demon1 was in and Inspire was out just hours before their series against Evil Geniuses.
After an incredible journey from Inspire, going from Tier 1 in 2022 for 100 Thieves, to then being dropped after only 2 games. And then forming a somewhat super team in Tier 2 with his friends, winning ascension with that team and making it back to the top. It seems to not be a fairytale ending for Inspire.
He has put out a tweet since being dropped by ENVY stating:
”@Envy moved me to the bench and they’re allowing me to explore options as a restricted F/A. Nothing makes me happier than being on that stage and I’m going to continue to grind to get back there ASAP”
It seems, despite this major setback, Inspire will do anything to get back to the top. With many teams expecting to make changes before Stage 1, will Inspire get a spot back in Tier one in 2026?
Valorant Digest 
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