Team Vitality announces Derke as new pickup for 2025 season
Team Vitality has just officially announced the signing of Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev as their newest roster pickup for the 2025 VALORANT season. Despite Fnatic’s best efforts, they were stopped just shy of top 4 at Champions 2024 and Derke found himself a free agent in the ensuing off-season.
Vitality in 2024 made the bold move to pick up 2 new rookies: Kimmie “Kicks” Laasner and Emil “runneR” Trajkovski, utilizing them in conjunction with their existing IGL - Jokūbas “Cender” Labutis - and dynamic star Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel.
Despite showing promise, the team would only manage to qualify for VALORANT Champions, where they failed to make it past the Group Stage. Kicks exited the team shortly after.
In this off-season, Vitality already made their first move, by picking up former-LOUD player Felipe “Less” de Loyola Basso. Now another world champion in Derke enters the fray, leaving the question of who does he replace?
It’s Derkin’ Time
Derke comes into this roster as a 2 time international champion, having won both VCT LOCK//IN and VCT Masters Tokyo with Fnatic in 2023. Despite strong efforts from the roster in 2024, Fnatic was not able to replicate their international success and Derke found his 3 and a half years term with Fnatic come to an end.
"Very excited to join this team with very amazing and promising players. Next year will be very exciting for everyone and especially for me as it's first time I'm having big changes like these and I'm considering it as a good challenge. The boys already felt very welcoming and really hungry to win, so I'm very excited for the next season."
Vitality have now secured world class entry specialist and sentinel player in Derke and Less. The question lies with Sayf, who currently occupies the duelist role for Vitality and previously the sentinel role, leaving question marks as to whether the Swedish talent can successfully role swap once again.
Team Vitality Roster for 2025
- Jokūbas “Cender” Labutis
- Kimmie “Kicks” Laasner
- Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel
- Nikita “trexx” Cherednichenko
- Felipe “Less” de Loyola Basso
- Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev
There's still plenty of VALORANT action ahead in the OFF//SEASON. So, check in with Strafe to catch all of the latest VALORANT news.
Also, stay tuned to Strafe YouTube for exclusive interviews, press conferences, and more.
Featured Image Source: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
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