Ex-Sentinels star Zachary “zekken” Patrone has officially joined Made in Brazil (MIBR), finalizing their promising roster for VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) 2026.
According to the official announcement, the 1xBet-backed roster looks quite strong and well-shaped for the upcoming VALORANT esports season, featuring:
- Erick “aspas” Santos
- Andrew “verno” Maust
- Ian “tex” Botsch (New!)
- Roberto Francisco “Mazino” Rivas Bugueño (New!)
- Zachary “zekken” Jude Patrone (New!)
The new players replace Gabriel “cortezia” Cortez (now in Sentinels), Eduardo “xenom” Soeiro, and Arthur “artzin” Araujo (now in FURIA).
At this point, you may expect zekken to join aspas and form a dominant duelist duo for MIBR’s VALORANT roster. His career so far has mostly revolved around playing duelists, serving as Sentinels’ main entry fragger for three years. To top it off, he reportedly had a “strong interest” in teaming up with aspas for VCT 2026—and aspas felt the same—according to TheSpike.gg.
That said, fans have seen zekken perform quite well on Omen in a few Icebox games in 2025. As a map, Icebox favors an unconventional composition featuring no duelist, double initiator, double controller with Viper, and one sentinel—and playing Omen in a double-duelist lineup allows the team to unlock his pseudo-duelist nature. Zekken was also reportedly playing various roles, including smokes, for Sentinels during off-season practice matches, per TheSpike Brasil.
Taking all this into account, zekken’s likely replacing artzin’s place that requires him in a flex role. This would sometimes see him as a secondary duelist alongside aspas, and at other times as an initiator or controller.
Ultimately, it will depend on how the pro meta shapes up for VCT Kickoff 2026: will it lean toward a double-duelist trend following Patch 11.08’s refresh, or continue favoring a support-heavy approach?
