“There is a lot of potential”: Karmine Corp SUYGETSU on revamped VCT 2026 roster

Despite two losses at VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026, VALORANT veteran Dmitrii ‘SUYGETSU’ Iliushin remains optimistic about the strength of the fresh Karmine Corp roster.

“Of course, there is a lot of potential in front,” SUYGETSU told Esports Insider in an interview after the French organisation’s most recent loss against Team Liquid.  

“From the beginning, it was not hard because everyone had good vibes. There is no person that is not respecting another one on our team. We respect everyone of us.”

SUYGETSU’s VALORANT esports career began in late 2020 under Russian esports organisation ForZe. 

Less than a year later, the veteran joined FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) to lift his first and only global VCT trophy at Masters Copenhagen 2022 and finished fourth at Champions Istanbul.

While SUYGETSU competed in three additional international tournaments in his first year representing NAVI, the 2024 season saw the team unable to qualify for any of the three annual global events.

This trend persisted throughout the 2025 season, when the Russian player first competed for French esports organisation Karmine Corp.

Following an underwhelming year SUYGETSU and his teammate Hazem ‘avez’ Khaled are the only two remaining players from Karmine Corp’s 2025 roster.

VALORANT Champions 2022 winner Matias ‘Saadhak’ Delipetro, as well as Martin ‘marteen’ Pátek and Artur ‘pyrolll’ Minin, have been replaced by three new faces: VCT veteran Bogdan ‘Sheydos’ Naumov, former BBL Esports duelist Burak ‘LêwN’ Alkan, and Pacific import Dastan ‘dos9’ Zhumagali.

“Me, Bogdan [Sheydos] and Dastan [dos9], we speak the same language, so it’s easy to go. Plus, I’ve known Bogdan for a long time ago,” commented SUYGETSU on his new teammates.

“And with Hazem [avez], I’ve already been one year on the team. So, we kind of got used to each other. And he’s an easy guy, who is easy to talk and be on the same page with. And Burak [LêwN], he’s a little bit, I would not say that he’s quiet but it was like he feels us instantly. We understood that he’s a good guy for us, but he’s not the same vibe as us. But he’s also a good guy. We like him.” 

With Saadhak departing for KRÜ Esports, it is now Sheydos’ turn to prove himself as Karmine Corp’s new in-game leader (IGL). 

Similar to SUYGETSU, Sheydos has been competing in EMEA’s VALORANT scene since 2020, albeit on different teams. He was part of the iconic Gambit Esports line-up that won Masters Berlin 2021 and became the inaugural VALORANT Champions runner-up.

When asked how he would describe Sheydos’ IGLing style, SUYGETSU replied: “He’s a pretty good guy. As a leader, he’s also good. He can have the mentality to be a good IGL, you know.

“And he’s also willing to work hard, so it’s a plus for us also. I think right now, he’s still searching for his approach to calling, so it’s hard to say what exactly he has. […] But I think in the future, match by match, we will understand how he plays,” he added. 

Throughout recent VCT seasons, Karmine Corp has made waves with its unique takes on VALORANT’s ever-changing meta. Most notably, the team leaned heavily into Harbor and Phoenix last year, two agents rarely picked in pro play.

Whilst Karmine Corp dropped Harbor for the early stages of the 2026 season, it debuted with a Phoenix/Yoru double-duelist composition on Haven and Breeze.

According to SUYGETSU, the roster has seen promising results in practice with the compositions chosen for VCT Kickoff, allowing the roster to “play with confidence”.

He also clarified: “We put the most comfortable kind of agent for our four guys. It’s not me deciding comps. It’s just what coaches give us, we play. But I feel like they also ask what people are most comfortable playing.”

SUYGETSU himself has played a lot of Astra during Karmine Corp’s first two matches of the season. Although both games ended in defeat, the controller player has shown incredible prowess and impact with his Astra utility so far.

“Just in general, I was working last year hard on Astra and it was a very impactful smoker for that meta, and, I don’t know right now, it’s maybe the same,” shared SUYGETSU with Esports Insider. “And I just in general feel myself good on Astra. And I’m showing what I’m capable of.”

So far, Karmine Corp has lost both its match against NAVI (0-2) and Team Liquid (1-2) at VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026. 

However, thanks to the tournament’s new triple-elimination format, the French organisation can still qualify for Masters Santiago through the Lower Bracket. Doing so would require Karmine Corp to win six matches in a row, including the best-of-five Lower Bracket Final.

“The more matches, the better, I would say,” commented SUYGETSU on the potential lower-bracket run. 

“Because it’s always experience for our players,” he added. “It’s big experience for Sheydos, for example, as an IGL and for Burak [LêwN] because it’s his second year [in tier-one]. And I found myself the second year as the hardest year because you’re not going into it like a rookie anymore. So, more matches is very, very good. I like it.”

Karmine Corp will next return to the VCT EMEA stage on February 3rd at 4 PM BST. To find out whether SUYGETSU and his team can survive against FUT Esports, fans can tune into its livestream via the league’s official Twitch and YouTube channels.