Riot Games has announced that ULF Esports has been removed from Valorant Champions Tour EMEA 2026, with fellow Turkish organisation Eternal Fire taking their spot in the competition.
The organisation departs Tier 1 after only one split, competing in EMEA Kickoff 2026 and the EMEA Clash 2026 before their expulsion from the competition.
Missed payments scandal leads to ULF downfall in VCT EMEA
The news follows a series of reports regarding missed payments from the organization, with Sheep Esports reporting in December that ULF’s League of Legends players were missing “Several months” of salary.
ULF founder Onuralp Mehmet Kurt denied the claims initially, however, the org continued to face similar accusations with posts accusing the org of not paying their Valorant roster during its entire stay in VCT EMEA.
Riot stated, “League officials have been in ongoing dialogue with ULF Esports and player representatives regarding publicly reported operational challenges affecting the team and its ability to operate in line with league standards. The result of these discussions led to the termination of ULF Esports’ participation in VCT EMEA.”
Eternal Fire sign four ULF players
Riot expressed that “Our priority following this decision was to ensure that the players – who earned their place in VCT EMEA through Ascension – were able to continue competing in the league.”
Following consultation with Riot, the majority of the Ascension-winning team has now transferred to Eternal Fire.
Eternal Fire has confirmed that four of the ULF players have signed with the organisation to compete for the remainder of the 2026 season, with Efe ‘s0pp’ Tur missing out on a spot in favour of Eternal Fire player Baran ‘Izzy’ Yılmaz.
Eternal Fire’s previous roster will continue to compete at the Challengers level, transiting to secondary team status in the highly competitive VALORANT Challengers: Türkiye Birlik division.
Riot Games statement in full:
“Following discussions with the affected players and both organisations, we can confirm that Türkiye-based organisation Eternal Fire will join VCT EMEA for the remainder of the 2026 season, replacing ULF Esports. As part of this transition, Eternal Fire will sign members of the former ULF Esports roster.
“League officials have been in ongoing dialogue with ULF Esports and player representatives regarding publicly reported operational challenges affecting the team and its ability to operate in line with league standards. The result of these discussions led to the termination of ULF Esports’ participation in VCT EMEA.
“Our priority following this decision was to ensure that the players – who earned their place in VCT EMEA through Ascension – were able to continue competing in the league. To enable this, we provided the roster with the option to sign with a new organisation of their choice and compete for the remainder of the 2026 season.
“Following their request to join Eternal Fire, and after an internal review of the organisation, the team has been approved to join VCT EMEA, and will sign four of the players previously contracted with ULF Esports. The league is working to support the former ULF players that competed in VCT as they navigate the transition.
“Eternal Fire will also retain a team in VALORANT Challengers 2026: Türkiye Birlik. That roster will transition to operate as a secondary team as part of this process.
“We look forward to welcoming Eternal Fire to the league and seeing the roster compete in VCT EMEA Stage 1.”
You can discuss ULF’s VCT termination on Insider Gaming’s Discord server.
Riot Games also recently announced that Stallions Esports will miss Valorant Challengers 2026 EMEA Stage 1.
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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