Counter-Strike Legend Blocked from Switching to VALORANT
One of the greatest Counter-Strike players ever, Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, revealed that his move to VALORANT was prevented by Riot Games due to “contractual reasons.”
The CEO of OG, JMR Luna, recently shared that both G2 and OG had agreed on a loan deal that would have seen kennyS join OG for a period of two to three months in the French VALORANT Regional League.
Luna stated that his head of esports informed him that Riot and OG had stipulated that “no loans” were allowed between G2 and OG. kennyS had agreed to a significant pay cut to compete alongside OG in VALORANT, which would have been his first professional venture in the Riot FPS.
The agreement involved temporarily pausing kennyS’ contract with G2 and treating it as a loan deal. Riot informed OG that kennyS could play under the condition that he signed with OG. However, at the time of writing, kennyS is still signed with and earning a salary from G2.
In a statement released earlier today, kennyS revealed that Riot blocked the transfer between the two organizations due to contractual reasons. He expressed no blame towards anyone, accepting the situation as it is.
The reason behind Riot’s decision to block the loan remains unclear. has reached out to Riot for comment.
In professional sports, players are typically not allowed to compete against teams they are contracted under as it would be a conflict of interest. For example, the English Premier League prohibits loaned players from playing against the team holding their registration, as stated in Section U.1 of the 2019/20 handbook.
However, the VRL France: Revolution is a distinct circuit from the VALORANT Champions Tour. OG can’t compete against G2 in this league because the second stage of VRL France leads to the VRL Finals, which features the top teams from each regional league.
VALORANT loans have become quite common among professional teams. In June 2021, Envy borrowed Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen from FaZe Clan. In April 2021, Sentinels acquired Tyson “TenZ” Ngo from Cloud9 on an extended loan deal to replace Jay “Sinatraa” Won. In March, European organization Fnatic was able to loan Enzo “Fea” Mestari from Alliance.
esports news, Counter-Strike, VALORANT, Riot Games, loan deal, French VALORANT Regional League, contract, kennyS, transfer, loan, conflict of interest, VRL France, VALORANT Champions Tour, professional teams.