Luminosity Gaming released Brenden “stellar” McGrath and Brady “thief” Dever from their VALORANT roster on May 25.
“There is never an easy way to begin these messages but today Luminosity Gaming is announcing that Brenden “Stellar” McGrath and Brady “Thief” Dever are no longer on our active VALORANT roster. They are free to pursue tryouts and explore offers with different teams. Any team that picks them up will be fortunate to have them; it is our loss that not every team composition works out. They were a pleasure to work worth, something that cannot be often said. From everyone at Luminosity, we wish them the absolute best of luck in the future,” Luminosity’s statement read.
Luminosity explore options after removing stellar and thief
An update to our competitive @PlayVALORANT roster: pic.twitter.com/E71fIG9RpZ
— Luminosity Gaming (@Luminosity) May 25, 2021
Luminosity Gaming failed to qualify for the VALORANT Champions Tour Challenger Finals after losing out to NRG Esports in round eight. They were one of several teams that made it to Masters 1 that failed to qualify for the Challengers Finals, which wasn’t what the organization was going for.
Now that the off-season for VALORANT is underway, with two North American teams participating in VALORANT Champions Tour Masters 2: Reykjavik, Luminosity has begun making changes. The tournament will last until May 31, which gives teams several weeks before VCT starts back up. So far, Luminosity and TSM are the only two notable NA teams to make changes. However, both teams had rocky performances leading up to and after Masters 1. There has yet to be a top-tier team like 100 Thieves, Cloud9, or FaZe Clan that has opted for a roster move.
Stellar was the in-game leader for Luminosity based on his previous experience in professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. He was known mostly on the roster for his supportive role on the team while playing Astra, Breach and Sage. Thief usually played duelists for Luminosity while he was on the roster, specifically Raze which he played on most maps.
Luminosity first picked up stellar and thief back in August of 2020 when the team was first being formed. Both players were the last remaining pieces from the original roster outside of Alex “aproto“ Protopapas. The members of the original team that brought them varied success in the early days of VALORANT have now been broken apart. Luminosity announced on Twitter that both players are free to trial and explore opportunities with other teams. They also stated that some team compositions just don’t end up working out but that any team would be fortunate to have them. With several weeks still to go before the next tournament, several teams may be looking to make changes to their roster.
