The 2025 esports season is shaping up to be incredibly exciting, following a heated transfer period:, disbanding of champion rosters, top players switching to their biggest competitors, and much more. In this article, Esports Charts takes a look at the key transfers leading up to the start of the new season.
Counter-Strike
The Counter-Strike esports scene has undergone a lot of changes in 2025, from a shift in the major tournament format to the announcement of new big events. But just as significant are the changes to the rosters of the top teams.
The biggest transfer in Counter-Strike heading into the new season was Robin ‘’ropz’’ Kool leaving FaZe Clan, where he had been a key player for three years. He’ll now continue his career with Team Vitality, replacing Lotan ‘’Spinx’’ Giladi. This move raises some interesting questions. First, it took the community by surprise. While fans had known about Nikola ‘’NiKo’’ Kovač’s move to Team Falcons for months (thanks to leaks and hints), ropz’s transfer was a total shock. FaZe Clan might not have had as successful a year in 2024 as in the previous two, but they still secured a victory at Intel Extreme Masters Chengdu 2024 and made it to two major finals in Denmark and China (even though they lost both). For two years, FaZe Clan has been consistently ranked in the top 10 of HLTV.org’s world rankings and frequently among the top teams.
Secondly, it’s hard to say that ropz’s move to Team Vitality is a clear upgrade for the French team, since Spinx actually had a more productive 2024, even by the numbers. In fact, Spinx ranked higher than ropz on the HLTV.org Top Players of 2024 list. Interestingly, both players peaked in 2023, but their performances declined afterward: Spinx dropped from 5th to 13th, and ropz fell from 3rd to 18th. On the surface, it’s not immediately obvious how Team Vitality benefits from swapping Spinx for ropz, but it seems that the French team's fans see this transfer as a big win.
That said, Counter-Strike fans are eagerly waiting to see how ropz and Team Vitality perform in 2025. As for FaZe Clan, the team signed Jonathan ‘’EliGE’’ Jablonowski, a veteran of the North American scene and the leader of Complexity Gaming, to replace ropz. Spinx, meanwhile, remains with Team Vitality as a benched player.
What other major roster changes should we keep an eye on in Counter-Strike? There were plenty of interesting moves. Team Falcons, HEROIC, Fnatic, and Cloud9 all made major roster changes, and it’s still unclear how they’ll fare in the upcoming season. Of course, all eyes will be on NiKo’s performance with Team Falcons. Will the Bosnian star shine in his new team, or will he follow in Oleksandr ‘’s1mple’’ Kostyljev’s footsteps? We’ll have to see how this new attempt by the Saudi superclub to build a star-studded Counter-Strike roster turns out.
League of Legends
Transfers in League of Legends usually happen without much drama, as everything is tightly regulated by Riot Games’ rules. However, at the end of 2024, a major story unfolded around T1 and their top laner Choi ‘’Zeus’’ Woo-je. It seemed like the 2024 World Championship winning team had no reason to make any roster changes, but unexpectedly, they lost one of their standout players.
T1 found itself in a complicated situation with Zeus, as the player simply didn’t renew his contract after the World Championship. T1’s management was eager to extend his deal and had made it clear they were open to any counter offers from Zeus, even offering him a potentially higher salary. Despite T1’s efforts, Zeus’ agent refused to engage in talks, and as a result, Zeus became a free agent. According to his agency, the new contract offer from T1 was unacceptable, which made further negotiations pointless. Zeus himself seemed willing to stay with T1 even under worse conditions, but he only spoke out about the situation after everything had unfolded — thanking his former teammates and fans for the sudden parting.
It’s tough to say who was truly at fault here, as both sides have made conflicting statements. Many T1 fans believe Zeus was a victim of the situation, which was made worse by his agent. Regardless, the legal matters are settled now — Zeus will continue his career at Hanwha Life Esports, and T1’s new top laner will be Choi ‘’Doran’’ Hyeon-jun, who played for HLE in 2024. In a way, both teams swapped players, but for T1, this was a necessary move.
Beyond the drama in Korea, there were also significant transfers in the European League of Legends scene. Team Heretics completely revamped their roster, Fnatic has a new bot lane duo, and there have been some changes in Karmine Corp and G2 Esports. KOI, on the other hand, has only made one roster change so far, keeping most of the MAD Lions KOI roster intact after their rebrand.
Dota 2
There were quite a few transfers in Dota 2 ahead of the 2025 season, but it’s hard to say that any of them were truly game-changing or major headlines. Especially since top teams like Team Liquid and Team Falcons decided to keep their rosters unchanged.
Arguably, the most interesting move in Dota 2 was Anton ‘’dyrachyo’’ Shkredov joining Tundra Esports. This should definitely strengthen the European squad, which has shown some decline in performance since their victory at The International 2022. As for dyrachyo, he’s undoubtedly a top-tier carry player who has had an outstanding two years with Gaimin Gladiators. In 2024, his team put up some great performances, winning Riyadh Masters 2024 and making it to the final of The International 2024.
This is a case where a key player from one top team moves to another, and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. So far, it looks like an ambitious and exciting move. The fresh blood should definitely help Tundra Esports regain their former strength, and for dyrachyo, the switch is likely a good thing, as it seems like Gaimin Gladiators had reached the peak of their progress, making changes necessary for further growth.
Valorant
The biggest transfer in the professional Valorant scene was Erick ‘’aspas’’ Santos joining MIBR. One of Brazil’s top players and the winner of VALORANT Champions 2022 with LOUD, in 2025, he’ll be part of one of the most respected Brazilian esports organizations.
Aspas left LOUD in 2023 and spent last season with Leviatán Esports, one of the top teams in Latin America. With Leviatán, he won VCT 2024: Americas Stage 2 and took third place at VALORANT Champions 2024. Meanwhile, MIBR’s results were more modest, but with a player like aspas joining the roster, things could change for the better.
Brazil has a lot of talented Valorant players, but they often perform best when playing for foreign teams. Brazilian organizations haven’t had the same kind of success as LOUD did in 2022. Fans are hopeful that MIBR’s new roster will change that, as they’ve brought in not just a top-tier player, but the VCT Americas 2024 MVP and Duelist of the Year.
Rocket League
In the fall of 2024, an interesting situation unfolded in Rocket League when both finalists of the RLCS 2024 - World Championship announced they were disbanding their teams. This sparked a series of exciting roster changes across the scene.
To recap, the RLCS 2024 WC final saw Team BDS face off against G2 Stride. Team BDS won 4-2, becoming the second organization in Rocket League history to claim two World Championship titles. Shortly after, Team BDS disbanded its roster: French players Evan ‘’M0nkey M00n’’ Rogez, Brice ‘’ExoTiiK’’ Bigeard, and coach Andy ‘’Kassio’’ Landais moved to Team Vitality, another top French team and one of Team BDS' biggest rivals.
Meanwhile, Samy ‘’dralii’’ Hajji from Morocco signed with the European roster of Karmine Corp. As for G2 Esports, the organization also parted ways with its American Rocket League roster after the World Championship, with the players and coach transitioning to NRG.
For more details on other esports transfers, check out the dedicated section on Esports Charts, which offers easy-to-use filters by game, country, and time frame.
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