G2 parts ways with valyn after three years

A farewell three years in the making

G2 Esports has parted ways with Jacob “valyn” Batio, the in-game leader who rebuilt the organisation’s Valorant identity and carried it to eight consecutive international events. G2 announced the departure on 27 October 2026 with a farewell video, crediting the 23-year-old American with “8 straight international appearances, 4 VCT Americas trophies, 1 legendary IGL” and thanking him for helping to put G2 Valorant back on the map. It was a short post for a long partnership, and it closed one of the most stable leadership runs in modern Valorant.

Valyn did not announce a new team. In his own video, he said the last three or four years with his teammates had been life-changing, and that the only sadness was that they could not reach “the highest of highs” together. He also said it would be poetic if both sides made it to a Masters and met in a duel. G2 assistant coach shhhack wrote that everyone knows how strong valyn is as a player and a leader, but more importantly, he is one of the best human beings you could ever meet.

From The Guard to every global event

Valyn came to G2 with the core of The Guard, the roster that won VCT Ascension Americas in 2023 and then lost its organisation when The Guard did not sign Riot Games’ partnership agreement. G2 picked up the team and took it into VCT Americas in 2024. After missing Masters Madrid at the start of that year, G2 did not miss another international event, in a streak from Masters Shanghai 2024 to Champions Shanghai 2026.

At home, the dominance was clearer. G2 won Kickoff, Stage 1 and Stage 2 in 2025, three of the four VCT Americas titles of the valyn era, and added a fourth regional title in Stage 1 of 2026. Valyn was named IGL of the Year and Controller of the Year for Stage 2 in 2024, and Controller of the Year and Grand Finals MVP for Stage 2 in 2025. Yet the international trophy never arrived. The closest G2 came was the Masters Bangkok grand final in 2025, where T1 beat them. That is the paradox of this farewell: a team that was almost always there, but never quite first.

G2’s 2026 season ended at Valorant Champions Shanghai when 100 Thieves knocked them out of the playoffs in a three-map series on 16 October. Afterwards, G2 described the run as its last dance. The farewell to valyn eleven days later therefore felt less like a sudden break and more like the formal end of a cycle that had already finished on stage.

The Fnatic question — reported, not confirmed

What happens next is where reporting and confirmation must be kept apart. G2 did not say where valyn will play next, and valyn himself has not announced a new team. What has been reported, by Sheep Esports and picked up by Insider Gaming on 28 October, is that valyn is heavily expected to join Fnatic for the 2027 VCT EMEA season, switching regions from the Americas to Europe. That move is not confirmed, and it should not be treated as done until Fnatic, G2 or valyn says so.

Fnatic are rebuilding away from their classic roster under Jake “Boaster” Howlett. Boaster has confirmed he is exploring options for 2027, and Austin “crashies” Roberts’s departure has also been signalled. Into that space, the reports place valyn alongside Kajetan “kaajak” Haremski and Kirill “Cloud” Nekhozhin, with Gentle Mates duelist Martin “marteen” Pátek also expected to be part of the rebuild. The complication is leadership: Cloud has handled calling duties for Fnatic, and he took a break from that role during his 2026 stint. If valyn arrives, he is largely expected to take the in-game leadership, with Cloud stepping aside — but the roles have not been revealed by the organisation.

Sheep Esports had previously linked valyn with a move to LYON for 2027, reportedly contingent on LYON securing Partner Status for 2027 and 2028. LYON missed out and have since withdrawn from Valorant esports, closing that pathway, and the Fnatic report emerged after that door shut.

What G2 must replace, and what comes next

For G2, the practical problem is immediate. The organisation keeps its partner seat for 2027, so its league place is safe, but the roster is not settled. VLR now lists four players — jawgemo, BABYBAY, trent and leaf — with JoshRT as head coach, and the shotcalling that held the core together for three seasons has to be replaced. Assistant coach shhhack has also been allowed to explore his options, while saying he is still in talks with G2.

The calendar makes that task urgent. VCT contracts for 2026 run out on 2 November, when free agency opens, and the open qualifiers for Kickoff 2027 begin in North America and Europe three days later. That compressed window is why a farewell announced on 27 October is not a quiet end-of-season note. It is the starting gun for a rebuild, for G2 and potentially for Fnatic, in a market where proven in-game leaders rarely stay available for long.

Valyn leaves as a four-time VCT Americas champion, an eight-time international participant, and the defining leader of G2’s Valorant era. Whether his next chapter is written in Europe, as reported, or somewhere else entirely, the measure of his time at G2 will not change: he took a roster that had lost its organisation and turned it into North America’s standard-bearer. The trophy eluded him. The legacy, on the evidence of the farewells alone, did not.