Team Heretics’ Dominykas “MiniBoo” Lukaševičius will not attend VALORANT Masters Shanghai next month, the org announced today. The team has decided to give him a break from competing after exhibiting signs of burnout and exhaustion in recent weeks.
In the team’s statement put out this morning, Heretics said his condition was not improving during the final days of the VCT EMEA Stage One playoffs, leading the org to make the “hard but correct decision” to temporarily move MiniBoo to the bench. The VALORANT roster status for Heretics at Masters Shanghai has not been determined yet but is expected to be announced soon.
MiniBoo has had perhaps one of the toughest schedules of any pro player this season. Team Heretics have had a packed schedule after making deep runs at EMEA Kickoff and in Stage One while qualifying for two international tournaments. MiniBoo, who is only 18 years old, is also “balancing all this with his studies.”
Concerns about pro VALORANT player burnout, especially in this condensed season among the top teams, have been voiced since before the 2023 season even concluded. The biggest issue with the schedule has been the lack of rest between events, which is amplified for teams that qualify for international events, such as Team Heretics. Heretics mentioned the lack of “proper breaks” in today’s announcement.
Proper relief will not come until 2025 when the schedule is expected to be spaced out properly across the entire year. While he didn’t give specifics, head of VALORANT esports Leo Faria remarked back in December that the current competitive calendar “is a bit too tight from February to August and sparse from September to January.”
EDward Gaming, FPX, Paper Rex, and Gen.G are other teams worth keeping an eye on for potential player breaks this season as all four have also qualified for both international tournaments in between stretches of VCT league play.
