Acend Part Ways With Starxo

European Valorant esports team Acend announced it is parting ways with in-game leader Patryk “starxo” Kopczyński on Monday, January 2. With starxo’s departure, Acend has parted ways with all five of its players who led the organization to the title of Valorant world champions in 2021.

Polish in-game leader starxo officially left Acend on Monday, three months after getting moved to the bench. Starxo leaves Acend as one of the inaugural members of the team, who joined Acend in March 2021.

Starxo was one of three remaining players on Acend after the organization decided to transfer list its entire Valorant roster due to not securing a spot in the partnered league in 2023.

As a result, Acend allowed starxo, Ondřej “MONSTEERR” Petrů, Travis “L1NK” Mendoza, Mehmet “cNed” İpek, and Vakaris “vakk” Bebravičius to explore their options for 2023.

To date, cNed and L1NK are the only two players who left the team. The former joined Natus Vincere in November, while L1NK has yet to find a new home.

Likewise, starxo has not signed for a new team yet, nor is it known whether he has reached an agreement with any organization. But given the fact that he led Acend to the 2021 VALORANT Champions title, it’s likely that the Pole is a sought-after player who won’t struggle to find a new home for the 2023 season.

“First 2 years in my life as a pro player, couldn’t ask for more from Acend & all of the boys, all of the support and memories will stay with me until the end of my life for sure. Im really gratefull for this opportunity, we built hella history,” said starxo.

However, most of the EMEA teams have already completed their lienups, giving starxo very few options. As it stands now, KOI is the only organization from the region that is still down a player, suggesting that KOI is a likely next destination for Acend’s former IGL.

Starxo kicked off his Valorant esports career in May 2020 with THOSE GUYS, where he spent four months before joining Entropiq. Unfortunately, starxo hasn’t achieved much with his new team, leading to his and the rest of the lineup’s benching in January 2021.

Following a short stint on Entripiq’s bench, straxo moved to Raise Your Edge Gaming, where he teamed up with cNed. The team had a rough start, finishing VCT 2021 EU Challengers 1 qualifiers in 17th-32nd place, but then won the third qualifiers and would go on to win VCT 2021: Europe Stage 1 Challengers 3, qualifying them for Stage 1 Masters.

Quickly after Raise Your Edge Gaming’s success, the entire lineup got picked up by Acend, where straxo’s career kicked off. With Acend, straxo won VCT Eu Stage 1 Masters, VCT 2021: Europe Stage 3 Challengers 1, and placed third in VCT 2021: EMEA Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs.

In September, Acend stumbled at Masters Berlin, where they placed fifth-eighth but found their stride in VALORANT Champions 2021, where Acend lifted the VCT trophy.

Despite the team’s success in 2021, Acend struggled to replicate their dominant run in 2022. The team stumbled at VCT 2022 EMEA Stage 1 Challengers, where they placed ninth-10th, and were hardly more successful in Stage 2 Challengers, where Acend finished fifth-sixth.

Acend’s shaky season ended with a failed run at VCT 2022: EMEA Last Chance Qualifier, where they lost against M3 Champions and G2 Esports and crashed out in seventh-eighth place. As a result, Acend missed out on VALORANT Champions 2022.

But the biggest blow came in the offseason when Riot Games announced that it didn’t accept Acend into the partnered league for the 2023 season. The decision led Acend to disband its roster and allow its players to look for other opportunities.