MVP PK leave Counter-Strike competitive scene
Team MVP PK and their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad have officially parted ways, with reports unveiling their former players will turn their focus to become VALORANT players.
The decision comes after a period of instability and turmoil for the South Korean CS:GO squad with their most recent tournament placement coming from Asia Minor Championship – Rio 2020: East Asian Closed Qualifier and ESEA Season 33: Asia-Pacific Open where MVP finished fourth and 9th-16th respectively.
Team MVP, widely regarded as the most successful South Korean esports organisations expanded into CS:GO in 2015 with a roster consisting of Hyun-pyo "XigN" Lee, Hyeong-ju "Sound" Nam, Hae-seong "HSK" Kim, Jung-hyeon "rindA" Jeon, Soon-woo "Argency" Kwon and coach Seon-ho "termi" Pyeon, who is one of the most experienced Korean Counter-Strike pro players, having begun his CS career back in 2005 and later played for e-STRO and WeMade FOX. The first MVP CS:GO team, dubbed MVP Project disbanded in July 2017, when the team transitioned to MVP PK, which was the second and from summer 2017 the only MVP's CS:GO project.
Since the merge between MVP Project and MVP PK, the latter saw a reasonable amount of success throughout its competitive endeavours. The South Korean team made several appearances at Big Events over the years, with the most notable being the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals and ESL One Cologne 2019, both of which MVP PK finished at the 13th-16th place. Outside of that, MVP PK picked up several titles from some regional tournaments, including eXTREMESLAND 2018 Asia Finals. Last year, MVP PK also came close to reaching the Major, when they placed fourth in the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019: Minors' 3rd Place Play-In after a third-place finish at the Asia Minor Championship – Berlin 2019.
In their three-year-long history, MVP PK reached a peak placement on the global rankings in May 2018, when they were ranked No.23 in the world, after finishing fifth-eighth at World Electronic Sports Games 2017, fourth at StarLadder & ImbaTV Invitational Chongqing 2018 and first at CS:GO Asia Summit.
All five members of the Korean side in Kim "Ch2ese" Nak-Yeon, Gu-taek "stax" Kim, Min-soo "glow" Kim, Goo "Rb" Sang-Min, Lee "k1Ng" Seung-won and coach termi retired and will together start focusing on VALORANT, meaning MVP PK became yet another Asian squad to transition from CS:GO to VALORANT. Last month, news surfaced that Absolute, a Japanese side, who attended WESG 2018 World Finals also suspended their CS:GO activities to prepare for the launch of Riot Games' tactical first-person shooter later this summer.
Many teams and players from various esports titles have announced their transition to VALORANT, including the reigning Overwatch league and Overwatch World Championship titleholder Jay "sinatraa" Won, ex-CS:GO pro Hunter "SicK" Mims and more. Earlier this week, it was unveiled sinatraa and SicK Jared “zombs” Gitlin and Shahzeeb “ShahZaM” Khan all got signed by Sentinels, who became one of many esports organisations to assemble their VALORANT roster even before Riot's FPS title had a chance to form a competitive scene.
MVP PK CS:GO roster was:
Seung-won "k1Ng" Lee
Gu-Taek "stax" Kim
Sang-Min "Rb" Goo
Min-Soo "glow" Kim
Nak-Yeon "Ch2ese" Kim
Seon-ho "termi" Pyeon – coach
