Esport MeDerke leaves Team Vitality after two VALORANT seasons
Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev has departed Team Vitality following a run to the Champions Shanghai final, leaving the EMEA side with a roster gap to fill before 2027.
Team Vitality have confirmed that Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev is leaving their VALORANT roster, ending a two-season spell that culminated in a Champions Shanghai grand final appearance, according to Esports.net News.
The organisation announced the split in a farewell video posted to X, describing the Finnish duelist as "the player who helped shape Vitality's legacy".
Derke joined Vitality in October 2024 after four years at FNATIC, where he had won back-to-back international titles at LOCK//IN and Masters Tokyo in 2023, Esports.net reported.
His debut season in Vitality colours fell short of those standards. Figures from VLR.gg cited by Esports.net show the 2025 line-up, built around Derke, Less and Sayf, finished fourth at Masters Bangkok before fading domestically, with early exits in both EMEA regional stages and no further international qualification that year.
Vitality reset for 2026, bringing in Chronicle from FNATIC and signing Jamppi and PROFEK from BBL Esports. The side placed only fifth at Kickoff while waiting for Sayonara to turn 18, but results picked up once the Romanian became eligible: a runner-up finish in Stage 1 and fourth place at Masters London followed.
Qualification for Champions Shanghai was far from comfortable. Vitality exited the Stage 2 playoffs early and only made the event as EMEA's fourth seed on points. Once there, their sole losses came against LOUD, a run that included beating the Brazilian side earlier in the tournament before meeting them again in the final.
LOUD won that decider 3-1 to become the first organisation to lift the Champions title twice, but the result still marked Vitality's first appearance on the closing day of a Champions event, per Esports.net.
With Derke gone, Vitality's active squad for VALORANT now consists of Jamppi, PROFEK, Chronicle and Sayonara, while coaches PAL and Scuttt, analyst slk and manager Bangovic stay on in their roles. The club holds a VCT partner slot for 2027, so the vacancy sits within a confirmed top-flight spot rather than a qualification scramble.
Neither Vitality nor Derke has disclosed his next destination. Esports.net notes that a wave of VCT contracts expire on 2 November, meaning the next two weeks are likely to settle both where Derke lands and how Vitality rebuilds a roster aiming to go further than its Shanghai final defeat.