hiro leaves NAVI and joins Team Heretics ahead of the VCT 2027 season

18.09.2026
Віталій Головатюк

Valorant Sentinel player Emirhan "hiro" Kat has reached a verbal agreement to join the Spanish organization Team Heretics. The Dutch-Turkish esports athlete is leaving Natus Vincere after a two-year stint, becoming one of the most sought-after players of the current offseason.

According to Sheep Esports sources, at least two other teams were interested in signing hiro. Despite the player's strong individual statistics, the past season with NAVI proved difficult and failed to bring the team any collective success.

This transfer is part of a massive rebuild for Team Heretics, initiated by the club after missing out on VALORANT Champions. The Spanish team has already extended the contracts of Benjy "benjyfishy" Fish and Enes "RieNs" Ecirli for the coming years. Meanwhile, team captain Ričardas "Boo" Lukaševičius has been granted permission to explore other options, and Martynas "koshmaras" Namikas, who joined mid-season, has departed the roster.

The arrival of hiro could prompt tactical changes within the team, as the Sentinel role had previously been covered by benjyfishy. For the 20-year-old newcomer, this presents an excellent opportunity to return to international tournaments—he last competed at this level during Champions 2024 with Fnatic.

Meanwhile, for Natus Vincere, the loss of their longest-standing roster member will likely mean a complete rebuild of the squad. Throughout the past season, the Ukrainian organization repeatedly shuffled the lineup around hiro, but this yielded no results. With the season's conclusion, the contracts of all team members are expiring, and the players have already been allowed to explore new options to continue their careers.

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