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Melih “pAura” Karaduran, a Turkish VALORANT pro, has left Team Heretics and joined Blaze Esports, an Istanbul-based organisation, both teams announced yesterday on Twitter.


The 23-year-old has been a member of Heretics's VALORANT team since October 2020, and he helped them win several tournaments last year, including the First Strike Europe in December 2020 where G2 Esports was dethroned as the strongest in the region. This year, though, other teams caught up to them, and the Heretics didn't have the same success. They were unable to qualify for the VCT Stage 2 Masters, which will take place in Reykjavik, Iceland, next week.  In 2021, their biggest achievement was a second-place finish behind Acend at the VCT Masters Europe Stage One in March.

The Heretics have changed their roster for the second time in a month. On May 13th, 2021, the Spanish organisation replaced head coach Tanishq Sabharwal with former FunPlus Phoenix captain Ivan “Johnta” Shevtsov as a first step toward resurrecting its VALORANT team after they failed to qualify for the $600,000 VCT Masters Reykjavik LAN event.

Heretics's lineup has been reduced to only three players since pAura's departure: ygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas, Christian "loWel" Garcia, and Auni "AvovA" Chahade. Ruben "RUBINO" Villarroel and Dustyn "niesoW" Durnas are two of the organization's bench players, but it's unclear whether they'll play for Heretics again or join another team in the future.

Blaze Esports, on the other hand, completed the formation of its VALORANT team earlier this month with the additions of pAura and Batuhan "russ" Malgaç, who was acquired from BBL Esports yesterday. The all-Turkish lineup is expected to perform in the competitive VALORANT segments to come. Once Stage 3 arrives, Blaze Esports will be looking to make a major impression in the next step of the VALORANT Champions Tour, and take the European scene by storm.