After 18 months on the Black Dragons e-Sports roster, Vitor "peres" Peres has now been benched. This comes just 11 days after Black Dragons competed in the Six Jonkoping Major quarter-finals, their first global event in R6 in almost five years.
The decision was a team-wide one with BD's official statement stating the following (translated from Portuguese):
The choice to replace the athlete came from a joint decision by all the players on the team and the coaching staff, who decided to opt for the athlete's dismissal from his role as a starter.
Peres made his professional debut last year on BD and has since finished five BR6 stages in sixth, seventh, fifth, seventh, and fourth place before finishing fifth-eight place at the recent Six Major. Peres also notably won the Copa do Brasil Stage 3 2021 tournament and was a single map away from competing at SI 2022.
Statistically, Peres was the second lowest-rated player during Stage 3 2022 on a soft breach entry role but the team's best-rated player at the Six Major as he moved onto a more aggressive Iana role.
Peres' contract will continue until August 2023 during which time he will remain on the bench unless another organization pays his buyout from BD.
Black Dragons themselves will have over a month to find a replacement player ahead of the Six Invitational Closed Qualifiers on Jan. 13-15th.