Giants' Rhyme retires from Valorant competition

After an amazing VCT 2023 year in Valorant, Giants' Emir “rhyme” Muminovic retires from professional Valorant. The team had a bitter sweet ending to the year. The team won VCT EMEA 2023 LCQ but took an early exit from Valorant Champions 2023. Despite the early exit, Giants constantly made strides and became one of the best teams of Europe.

Similar to many Valorant professionals, Rhyme made a switch from CSGO. He started his career as a stand-in for Ninjas in Pyjamas’ European roster. He spent the majority of 2022 in North America playing for GenG and was a sub for the FPX roster at Valorant Champions. Giants officially signed Rhyme alongside Cloud, hoody and Nukkye for the new VCT EMEA 2023 Giants.

With the team, Giants defeated DFM to lose to NRG in a close contested series at Sao Paulo. They finished VCT EMEA as the fourth seed but unfortunately lost to FUT and Natus Vincere in the playoffs. Coming into the EMEA LCQ, Giants completely dominated the competition to secure Valorant Champions 2023. At the team, EDG eliminated them from the competition.

After the loss, Rhyme said:

“The season has been good. I think everyone on the table can agree. I think most people who watched have somewhat been happy with how we have been performing and what we have done. This is just one of many for all of us. And I think we have gone against the odds of what people have thought about us throughout the season. We have gone against the odds of the press, the media and whoever was thinking about the team before we started playing.

I can’t say anything else but thanks for supporting us and thanks for believing in us. I think that’s a big thing and I think people believed in us. That’s a big thing, people believed in us and always say that even though we made one step back sometimes, we made two steps forward. It was kinda similar in the tournament, We took two steps forward with EDG and KRU but are again one step back after the loss today. But next time we play, we will take two or three steps forward, so we will always keep improving and always keep going up. So I would thank people for always being there for us, always cheering for us and believing in the project.”

The year was a success for Rhyme and Giants and they definitely became one of the best EMEA team. Yesterday, Giants Twitter announced rhyme's retirement. He will be concentrating on his academic career moving forward. After G2 Mary, rhyme is the second Valorant player to retire early from the competition.

Credits: Giants Twitter