aspas Agrees FUT Esports Deal After Turning Down a Seven-Figure VCT China Offer

The biggest free agent in Valorant has picked his next team, and he turned down a fortune to do it. Brazilian star Erick 'aspas' Santos has agreed to join FUT Esports for VCT 2027, according to THESPIKE Brasil, after declining a multimillion offer from a Chinese team. The deal is not signed yet, but aspas gave his yes on Tuesday morning, November 10, and the move would put one of the best duelists in the world into VCT EMEA for the first time in his career.

aspas FUT Esports deal: what we know

The deal was first reported by YouTuber 2COx1NUT on Sunday, November 8, and THESPIKE Brasil has since learned that aspas only gave his final yes on Tuesday morning. All that remains is for the contract to be signed. That is the THESPIKE report in full, and it is worth stressing the sequence: the Chinese offer came first, aspas said no, and then he chose FUT.

aspas leaves MIBR without a title after two years with the team. MIBR moved its entire roster to inactive status on October 24, which freed aspas, zekken, Verno, tex and Mazino to explore offers, though any team that wants them still has to negotiate with MIBR while their contracts run. FUT reached an understanding with MIBR about authorizing the transfer, which is why this deal could move as fast as it did.

Why FUT, and why not China

aspas had made playing in China or EMEA in 2027 his priority, and he was torn between two offers: one from a Chinese team, whose name THESPIKE Brasil was unable to confirm, and one from FUT. He ultimately picked the Turkish organization after deciding that FUT has the potential to win titles. That is the key detail. The Chinese offer was worth seven figures, and aspas walked away from it because he judged FUT the better competitive project.

THESPIKE Brasil had already reported that aspas wanted a team capable of winning titles in any region, from Brazil to EMEA to China to Asia-Pacific. FUT plays in VCT EMEA, so this is also a first for aspas: he has never played in EMEA before, after building his name with LOUD in the Americas and then spending two years at MIBR. For FUT, landing a player of this caliber is a statement of intent for the new two-year partnership cycle, and it instantly makes them one of the teams to watch when VCT Kickoff begins in January 2027.

The VCT 2027 shuffle around aspas

aspas is the headline, but he is not the only big name moving. The VCT free agency window opened on November 2, and the first week has already reshaped half the league. LOUD won Champions Shanghai 2026 and then lost two starters, lukxo and erde, leaving only DaviH and Darker on the roster. Sentinels opened free agency by signing former Cloud9 duelist OXY on November 2, the first day of the window, after Cloud9 missed out on a partnership slot for 2027.

The reported moves keep coming. Alexander 'jawgemo' Mor, who won Champions 2023 with Evil Geniuses, is reportedly set to join Team Vitality for the 2027 EMEA season, which would make him one of the biggest names to switch from VCT Americas to VCT EMEA. Paper Rex confirmed the departures of d4v41 and Jinggg, two players who had been with the organization since its earliest days. And MIBR has no active roster at all after benching all five players, which means aspas is only the first of several MIBR names likely to surface elsewhere.

The structure behind all of this is Riot's new partnership cycle. Riot chose 32 partner organizations for 2027 and 2028, eight in each of the Americas, EMEA, Pacific and China regions, and teams outside the partnership must fight through open qualifiers that started in November. Sentinels are already rebuilding around OXY, G2 are rebuilt with a new core, and Aurora Gaming stunned the offseason by revealing a five-player roster led by Derke. When the dust settles in January, the league will look very different from the one that crowned LOUD in Shanghai, and the aspas deal is the move that sets the tone.