NS RedForce have signed Go “UdoTan” Kyung-won, the South Korean duelist who reverse-swept them in the VCT Pacific Stage 2 grand final in Busan only two months ago. The club confirmed the deal on November 4, just a day after saying goodbye to Masters Santiago MVP Dambi.
In its official announcement on X, NS said UdoTan will “spearhead the team with his relentless pushes and explosive firepower”, which leaves little doubt about the job he has been hired to do. That is the language of an entry duelist, and it describes exactly the hole Dambi’s Neon left in the lineup when his time at the club ended.
Sheep Esports first reported the move on October 23, so the announcement confirms one of the worst-kept secrets of the Pacific off-season. Even so, the deal carries a sharp twist, because NS are bringing in the player who did the most damage to them in the biggest match of their year.
From Chinese Challengers to the MVP who beat NS in Busan
UdoTan’s route to this point has been unusually long. According to VLR.gg, he debuted in 2020 and spent his early years with smaller sides such as GoNGo Prince, TALON and Gwangju Shadow, before moving to China with Four Angry Men in late 2023.
His breakthrough came with Rare Atom in 2024, when he finished runner-up at Ascension China while mostly playing initiator. Global Esports, the Indian organisation led by founder and CEO Rushindra Sinha, then signed him on October 31, 2024, and he soon became the team’s main duelist in VCT Pacific.
The first year was rough, as GE finished no higher than ninth in any of their three VCT Pacific events in 2025. In 2026, however, the roster finally clicked, finishing third in Pacific Stage 1, reaching Masters London and then winning Stage 2 for the organisation’s first VCT trophy.
That final is the reason this signing stings for NS fans. NS won Sunset 13-11 and crushed GE 13-2 on Split, but GE then took Abyss, Lotus and Haven to complete a 3-2 reverse sweep on September 6. VLR.gg named UdoTan the MVP of the series after he finished the five maps with 77 kills.
A month later at Champions Shanghai, he played Neon in a 2-0 win over EDward Gaming, although GE went out in the group stage after a 2-0 defeat to LOUD. On October 19, Sinha then announced that Global Esports was leaving competitive esports, which released the entire title-winning roster into free agency.
Why NS needed a proven spearhead without a partner seat
For NS, the timing matters as much as the player. Their 2026 season was the best in the organisation’s VALORANT history, as they came through Kickoff and won Masters Santiago with a 3-0 sweep of Paper Rex in the final. They then added third place at the Esports World Cup and that runner-up finish in Stage 2.
Champions in Shanghai ended in seventh to eighth place, after defeats to Team Vitality in the upper bracket and 100 Thieves in the lower bracket. Ten days after that exit, NS learned they had not been selected for the VCT partner programme for 2027 to 2028, despite holding a Masters title.
CEO Evans Oh responded with a long statement on X, promising that “our journey will continue in 2027” while warning that the “advantages in player recruitment available to partner teams” would create a gap. Landing the MVP of the Stage 2 final is the club’s first concrete answer to that worry, and it was announced just 16 days later.
The other early moves point in the same direction. Sheep Esports reported on October 29 that former controller Persia is set to rejoin NS on the coaching staff. Meanwhile, the club’s first clip with UdoTan, posted hours after the announcement, paired him with Rb from the 2026 roster.
Only one Korean ticket to Bangkok is on offer
NS will not have long to bed him in, though. As a team outside the partner programme, they now enter the VCT Pacific Kickoff Korea Qualifier, where Riot has seeded them straight into the playoffs alongside KIWOOM DRX, VARREL and ONSIDE GAMING.
That bracket runs from November 30 to December 6, with the final three days played offline at WDG Studio Hongdae in Seoul. Only its winner earns one of the four Open places at Kickoff in Bangkok in January, where the top three teams go on to Masters Seoul.
