EDG shocked Valorant fans by benching star player Hsieh “S1Mon” Meng-hsun and replacing him with Zhang “Jieni7” Juntai, and it looks like the ensuing drama could not be resolved as the player now officially leaves the Chinese Valorant team.
S1Mon is the key element behind the success of EDward Gaming and the team’s championship run. EDG benched the star player despite him being the best support at Valorant’s year-end championship in 2024. The Taiwanese Valorant player claimed EDG was excluding him unfairly, but the other players apparently blamed him for being the reason behind the drama.
Screenshots were posted showing S1Mon apparently being the one in the wrong and behaving unprofessionally. The drama gave competitive Valorant fans something to talk about, but the team and S1Mon went silent after the altercation became public. That changed on August 6 when EDG announced that S1Mon was officially leaving the team.
Chinese esports organization EDward Gaming posted a video announcing that S1Mon was leaving the EDG Valorant team, captioned “Thank you, S1Mon.”
S1Mon became the first Taiwanese player to win an international Vaorant title and quickly became famous for his aggressive gameplay style. The Taiwanese player was part of EDG’s roster when it secured the championship title at Valorant Champions 2024.
S1Mon made a name for himself because of the win, but things went wrong for the player in 2025. His fallout with EDG and later getting benched made things worse for the player. That’s why it didn’t come as a surprise to many fans when it was announced that he had left EDG.
Fans are expressing their support for the Taiwanese Valorant player, with many claiming he has exceptional talent that’ll help him bounce back elsewhere.
Many fans are speculating what this means for the future EDG. S1Mon was heavily credited as being the main factor in the team’s pst success, and fans are questioning whether the team will struggle to reach those heights again following his departure.
EDG and S1Mon haven’t explicitly talked about why the player left, but the previous drama is almost certainly a significant factor. The public spectacle and the bad blood between S1Mon and the team’s other players likely led to the departure of the star player from EDG.
There are rumors that the Valorant team Any Questions Gaming has signed S1Mon. The team and player haven’t announced anything official, but many have begun speculating that S1Mon could help AQ reach new levels of success. Some fans have expressed surprise that S1Mon has apparently signed with a tier-2 organization, believing that the player’s talent should make him a must-have for any tier-1 team.
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