Passion UA Is Gone: Visas, Stickers and a Stripped Roster

On August 15, Argentine AWPer Santino "try" Rigal, who spent the spring of 2026 with Passion UA, finally explained why a roster built for the upper half of the top 20 never made it to summer. The reason is painfully mundane. "There were visa issues, and as a result, we didn't get much training," he told Dust2 Brasil. Across three months of the international lineup's existence, the team got roughly three weeks of practice together.

By the time he said it, Passion UA no longer existed as a competitive unit: HLTV lists the club as having no roster, and its last match was played on May 13. Here's how an organization founded by a Ukraine international footballer fell apart in a single summer.

Three weeks of practice in three months

The international lineup was assembled with ambition: an AWPer from Argentina, an in-game leader from South Africa, a Ukrainian on loan, an American. On paper, a breakout roster. In practice, five people with five different passports who first had to physically end up in the same place, and that never happened. Visa problems denied the team a proper bootcamp, and an international roster doesn't gel in one month, or three.

The first public signal wasn't a disband announcement but a tired line from the captain. On May 18, as the team ended its season early, Johnny "JT" Theodosiou put it plainly: "We need to know the plan for the future, what the set five is, we need to sign some players and complete the roster. Right now we're kinda just in limbo, and we keep making the same mistakes."

Timeline of a collapse

There was never a press release saying "we're shutting down our CS2 division". The club didn't die in a day: it was taken apart over two months.

HLTV's wording in its July 11 story on try joining Legacy says it all: the Passion UA lineup is already described as "now-defunct". The scene buried the team well before anyone announced anything.

Where the players went

The captain landed best: JT took the reins at Liquid and immediately beat Vitality 2–0 on debut. The full map of this summer's moves is in our rostermania 2026 breakdown.

It isn't only about visas

Visas explain why the roster never clicked. They don't explain why the club didn't build a new one. Two other factors do.

First, the founder left. Passion UA was created in August 2023 by Oleksandr Zinchenko, the Ukraine international footballer. On June 23, 2026 he announced he was leaving the project. The club had been operationally run by CEO Artemijs Rjabovs since May 2025, but the departure of the man whose name opened doors to sponsors landed in exactly the month the roster finally fell apart.

Second, and this one is bigger than any single club: Valve changed the Major sticker system, and Stage 1 team revenue collapsed from roughly $600,000 to about $120,000, of which the organization keeps around $60,000 after the mandatory 50/50 split with players. For organizations at Passion UA's level, sticker money wasn't a bonus; it was the backbone of the annual budget. That same June, Gaimin Gladiators benched their squad citing the change in Major revenue structure directly: the team had received 0.72% of the sticker pool after an 0–3 exit.

Seen that way, Passion UA stops being a private story about paperwork. A club with two Majors on its record (Shanghai 2024 and Budapest 2025, where it fell one step short of the playoffs) and a peak world ranking of 14 simply ran out of reasons to continue.

What comes next

The organization has been here before: it disbanded its Dota 2 roster in December 2025, putting the game on hold, and in August 2025 it swapped a Ukrainian CS2 lineup for an international one, promising "not the end of the Passion UA story, but just the beginning of a new chapter". Formally the club is still alive: it never announced a shutdown, and it simply doesn't field five players.

Our page with the team's stats and last known roster stays up, as it does for every team that drops out of the HLTV top 50. If Passion UA builds a new roster, it will show up there.

FAQ

Has Passion UA officially disbanded?

There was no official disband announcement. The team simply ended up without a roster: the players left for other clubs across June and July 2026, and HLTV now lists the organization as having none. Legally the club still exists and never closed its CS2 division.

Why did the Passion UA roster fall apart?

AWPer try named two reasons: visa problems and, as a result, almost no practice together, roughly three weeks across three months. On top of that came founder Oleksandr Zinchenko's exit in June 2026 and the broader collapse in tier-2 revenue after the Major sticker system changed.

Where did the Passion UA players go?

JT became Liquid's captain, try joined Brazil's Legacy, Kvem signed for Eternal Fire, and nicx moved to Marsborne. Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev has been a free agent since June 30.

What was Passion UA's best result?

A peak world ranking of 14 on HLTV and appearances at two Majors: Perfect World Shanghai 2024 and StarLadder Budapest 2025, where the team reached the third stage and fell one step short of the playoffs.