Aspas reportedly set to join rival South American VALORANT team for 2024

One of the biggest free agents of the VALORANT Champions Tour 2023-24 offseason seems to be off the board as a star Brazilian duelist has reportedly agreed to terms with a different South American team set to compete against LOUD in the upcoming season.

Erick “aspas” Santos has come to a verbal agreement to join the Argentinian team Leviatán for the 2024 VCT season, according to a report from blix.gg. This would mark Leviatán’s first move of the offseason outside of letting the contracts of coach Rodrigo “Onur” Dalmagro and player Vicente “Tacolilla” Compagnon expire, but picking up the former Champions final MVP and regional MVP is a strong first signing.

All across the 2023 season, LOUD remained a top team in their region after winning Champions in 2022, despite losing two members of that winning roster. This was due to the shrewd offseason pickups of Cauan “cauanzin” Pereira and Arthur “tuyz” Vieira, but keeping aspas on the team was their best choice heading into the 2023 season. His contract for the team was expiring at the end of the year, but he was still one of the best talents across all leagues, especially on Jett. He kept that form up and, despite some international hiccups, ended the year as Americas MVP before announcing his move to free agency.

It’s been mentioned enough in the analysis of his gameplay, but his aim, skills with the Operator, and movement with Jett’s kit are what separate him from other Jett players in the competitive scene. Add onto that a good Raze and Neon, and he had all he needed for both the 2022 and 2023 seasons to remain in that top-five duelist space, even at his worst. Even with the offseason balance changes that have nerfed Jett, a talent at the level of aspas doesn’t usually appear on the free agent market often.

As for Leviatán, the fit of aspas is a flat improvement from the previous construction of its roster. Their 2023 season was defined by the potential of a victor but mired by inconsistency. Everything hinged on their two star players of Tacolilla and fragging IGL Francisco “kiNgg” Aravena, but when one of the two would underperform, the team as a whole would drop in the standings. 

Now, with Tacolilla gone, the duelist role is open for a different star to fill in. It isn’t all perfect, though, as some of the same worries from Tacolilla are present with aspas, most importantly their reliance on Jett more than any other agent. On the other side of that argument, aspas’ consistency and ability to play Raze at a high level should allow for him to ease into this new roster and improve the overall team performance. 

It’ll be an entirely new environment for the former LOUD prospect, but he won’t have to travel too far to meet his new teammates.