"A comeback is certain" Vakk's VALORANT story

Our first interview is with a well-known talent on the VALORANT professional scene, the Lithuanian Vakaris "Vakk" Bebravičius. His walk at VALORANT began with its public release when he formed the infamous "nolpenki" roster. After that, he found himself in one of the best organizations in Europe, Team VITALITY, and later joined the World Champions Acend. As of last week, Acend announced Vakk's departure from the team, rendering him a free agent ahead of the new season.

Childhood and gaming

Vakk's journey in gaming began with a low-end PC, in which he has shown interest in FPS games the likes of Counter-Strike 1.6 and Call Of Duty series. After a PC upgrade, he got his hands into the famous title then PUBG, which he took as his start into esports. "PUBG was a unique experience, it had something new, it was a new genre back then, so I just gave it all the time I could and tried to be spotted in the scene and taken into some organization"

Transition to VALORANT and struggles

Unlike most VALORANT professionals, Vakk came from PUBG, he was signed to eSuba's PUBG roster, and competed in several tournaments. He revealed that after PUBG, he dedicated his time to CS:GO with the same approach hoping to make it to the big leagues, however that was short-lived as after VALORANT's public release, he knew VALORANT was the title to stick with. "After a few months of CS:GO and working REALLY hard on it, I saw VALORANT and its active dev team, which meant it'd have frequent updates and changes, making it a reliable game to take on a professional level, so I just switched! Although becoming professional in VALORANT was a lot harder because of the competitive scene overall, there were a lot of talented individuals who wanted to become professional in it just as much I did, the bar was set high from the beginning, so much higher than PUBG"

Vakk's approach was simple, find Lithuanians with similar mindset and compete at all tournaments, he had something to prove, and so "nolpenki" roster was created. "I remember I created this Lithuanian team, the goal was to attend as many tournaments as possible". However, the Lithuanian mix didn't last long, Vakk resorted to a European roster instead, and the stakes were higher. "When I recreated the nolpenki roster with zeek, cNed, JESMUND and Aron, I knew this team had to win it all, and I wanted to reach the highest levels of the competition".

After the run with nolpenki, Vakk competed under "FrenzyGoKill" which was another free agent roster, however this time around, the roster was signed to famous French organization Team Vitality, and this marked a historical moment to Vakk. "Vitality was and still is the biggest achievement of my career in VALORANT esports, I always dreamt of competing under one of the biggest organizations, and it happened! Joining them was the turning point for me, it was not fun and games anymore but a professional career now, everything changed, but for the better. The goal was to win it all now."

His next chapter began when he joined Acend. Acend was crowned the winners of Champions the previous season, and the rebuild's goal was to recapture Acend's successful run. However, that didn't happen, as Acend fell short to Gambit's former roster Masters3Champions and FPX in Champions Tour EMEA Stage 2: Challengers, and then again to Gambit's former roster and G2 Esports in Champions Tour EMEA: Last Chance Qualifier. With all these shortcomings, Acend fell into a slump, and it went downhill from there. "Since I joined Acend I realized that it's not going to be the same, the difference was massive, the atmosphere as well. It was difficult for me to IGL, I had no experience in that domain, and with me on a new role and with such high stakes, it was a bit rough but doable for me . I, also, had a plenty of dark times in real life, and it has shown in the field I guess..."  

Off Season and the Roster-mania

Riot Games announced the partnership structure for 2023. It was both praised and criticized. But with the new structure in place, multiple organizations failed to secure a spot in the partnership, including Acend, the former World Champions.

Off Season came in with international tournaments, Vakk was still under Acend and competed in Riot's off season tournament "Superdome", losing to FNATIC in the finals. This marked Vakk's last tournament under the infamous organization. But in Vakk's mind, it also marked his last tournament in general, as he felt his performance will not land him a spot in franchised teams. "All of us needed Off-Season, it was a fresh air from the rather intense VCT circuit. Dealing with the roster-mania was rough for me, I am an honest person with others and most importantly with myself. So I instantly realized that it was over for me, there is no shot I am going to be in a franchised team, not even a VALORANT Challengers League team, since I didn't do so well with Acend, and that's on me."

Acend departure and the future

With the end of the Off Season, Acend announced the departure of most of their roster, including Vakk. "I was reading the comments about the new Acend roster rumors and I remember one user asked 'Where is Vakk going?' and another user replied to him 'Home' and that captures what I feel right now, I am going home. I must take some time off to focus on me, rest and reset for the upcoming seasons, but a comeback is certain."

Advice and concluding words

"I think the most important thing is to believe in yourself. Be disciplined, open-minded and hard-working. And also, it helps if there's competent people around you that already have achievements in esports who could direct and guide you."

Vakk, in his own words, promised us a comeback. We'll be looking forward to seeing you compete again, and best of luck in your career.