Media: MIBR deny using VALORANT franchise stipend to acquire former FURIA duo

MIBR have denied reporting that they diverted funds intended for their VALORANT esports division to instead acquire André “drop” Abreu and Rafael “saffee” Costa from FURIA in 2023.

The organization categorically denied the report, claiming that each of their esport divisions operates with financial autonomy and funds are never mingled between game titles.

The report from Valorant Zone that when MIBR joined the VALORANT franchise system in 2023, the organization used the franchisee stipend to sign drop and saffee to the organization's Counter-Strike team.

drop and saffee both joined MIBR at the tail end of June of last year, and since then have helped the team climb from just outside the top thirty into the top twenty teams in the world. Crucially, MIBR were unable to qualify for the PGL Copenhagen 2024 Major, missing out on sticker revenue that could have given a healthier return on investment.

The report comes as MIBR's VALORANT squad have struggled in Split 1 of VALORANT Champions Tour 2024 Americas, the top tier circuit of VALORANT esports. The squad finished the season 0-5 in series and 0-10 in maps. MIBR only achieved a double digit round score once in all ten losing maps. They were the only winless team across all four partnered VCT regions, including unpartnered, Ascended organizations.

According to Bruno Povoleri, the coaching staff at MIBR put together over ten different possibilities for a new roster coming into the regular season. The MIBR board, then, reportedly said they would not invest heavily in the squad, only approving two possible teams: a team consisting of three imports that failed to materialize or the current team, which was not predicted to perform well but came at a cheaper price.