During the last 5 years, Timofey ‘Chronicle’ Khromov has established himself as some of the completed VALORANT athletes within the historical past of the esports title.
Nonetheless, after three profitable years of competing for Fnatic, he determined to observe the footsteps of his former teammate, Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev, and make the swap to EMEA rival Staff Vitality.
Whereas many throughout the VALORANT group have set their eyes on this new ‘superteam’, Chronicle’s expectations for the 2026 VCT season stay the identical as all the time.
“There’s a factor that I all the time say in any interview, to any teammate at any time: ‘No expectations’. For me, an important factor within the recreation is having enjoyable, and after that, the whole lot comes with it,” Chronicle advised Esports Insider in an unique interview after his first sequence win at VCT EMEA Kickoff.
“Like, if you happen to don’t have enjoyable, you’ll by no means get pleasure from it. And even if you happen to win, once more, with out enjoyable, in fact, it is not going to be satisfying. So what’s the purpose in even taking part in the sport at that time? Even with the losses, you may generally get pleasure from what you probably did,” continued the participant.
“And if this might be one other 12 months of me dropping a Champs, possibly final place or possibly once more in second, it doesn’t matter. If we win, we win all the identical.”
Chronicle Reunites With Derke
Chronicle gained his first international trophy (Masters Berlin 2021) when he competed for Gambit Esports alongside VALORANT esports icons akin to Ayaz ‘nAts’ Akhmetshin and Igor ‘Redgar’ Vlasov.
Like all members from this legendary roster, Chronicle was a part of orgless staff M3 Champions in early 2022. Within the 2023 season, he joined Fnatic, one of many companion groups for Riot Video games’ semi-franchised VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT).
It was on Fnatic, the place the Russian participant first competed alongside Derke, who had joined the UK-based organisation a 12 months prior. Collectively, the 2 gamers helped Fnatic grow to be a historic identify in aggressive VALORANT, claiming two worldwide titles (2023 LOCK//IN São Paulo and Masters Tokyo 2023) in a single season.
Nonetheless, for the 2025 VCT season, Derke and Chronicle performed on totally different groups for the primary time in two years. Whereas Derke joined Staff Vitality’s first try at a superteam, Chronicle had one other profitable 12 months with Fnatic, reaching second place at each Masters Toronto and Champions Paris. Following Chronicle’s transfer to Staff Vitality, the 2 are reunited once more for the 2026 VCT marketing campaign.
“Yeah, it feels good as a result of I’ve recognized him as an individual for a very long time and in addition as a participant,” shared Chronicle.
“I do know which issues he’s fairly sturdy at, and even on this match [against ULF Esports], he confirmed all of them, all these qualities that he has as an individual. So I’m fairly completely happy for him. And I’m additionally completely happy to play alongside him and assist him each time I can.”
A New IGL For Chronicle
On Fnatic, Chronicle additionally spent three years beneath the management of one in every of VALORANT’s most skilled in-game leaders (IGLs), Jake ‘Boaster’ Howlett.
In the meantime, Staff Vitality not too long ago signed Elias ‘Jamppi’ Olkkonen as its new IGL for the 2026 VCT season. Jamppi has been competing in tier-one for nearly 5 years, however solely took over the position of IGL when taking part in for BBL Esports within the 2025 season. Nonetheless, Chronicle believes within the distinctive management type of his new IGL.
In keeping with the previous Fnatic participant, there are two fundamental variations between Boaster’s and Jamppi’s method to the position: “The important thing issues I’ll say between each of them is that Boaster likes to have very clear, correctly polished defaults and set rounds. I believe it’s his type of all the time being totally ready, whereas Jamppi is extra in a position to enter variations and improvising.
“I believe one other one is form of a mentality, and in addition his power, the best way he provides it. […] He has that aggressive power in him, and possibly a few of the individuals who watched this match noticed how a lot power he provides, for instance, after the rounds once we’re successful the rounds.
“Whereas it nonetheless does the identical job, it provides different teammates sufficient power to proceed taking part in and be targeted on the identical degree.”
He continued: “Like Boaster is extra entertaining, and Jamppi is extra targeted on the staff itself and conserving everybody in the identical boat.”
Chronicle on His Odin Utilization
Staff Vitality’s first match of the season was an extremely clear 2-0 sweep towards one of many two EMEA Ascension 2025 groups, ULF Esports.
“I don’t suppose ULF specifically performed actually badly. I believe it was possibly some stress from their staff members. Perhaps as a result of it was the literal first match in VCT for all 5 of them. Like it’s actually powerful to play like that,” commented Chronicle after the sequence.
The match towards ULF additionally noticed Staff Vitality decide Breeze for the very first time for the reason that map acquired its main rework and returned to VALORANT’s aggressive map pool forward of VCT Kickoff. For this event, Chronicle ceaselessly bought the Odin to assist lock down websites on Breeze’s defence.
When requested whether or not it was him or Staff Vitality’s teaching workers that inspired his Odin utilization, Chronicle replied: “It was a little bit of each, to be sincere. I beforehand was a fairly good Odin participant earlier than, particularly once I performed on recon initiator roles like again, for instance, within the days once I performed for Gambit. I used to be constantly doing Odin performs. Perhaps some previous [viewers] actually keep in mind I used to be doing a little insane clutches on Ascent on a regular basis with the Odin.”
Chronicle additional defined why he considers the Odin so sturdy within the present meta, notably on Breeze.
“I believe Odin on this map is fairly good as a result of it lets not solely, for instance, recon gamers, but in addition even people who smoke truly totally destroy many execs for the staff,” he stated.
“Loads of spammable partitions, additionally very straight chokes, very neat to spam. You might have some straightforward traces to spam. And I imply, on Odin, it’s fairly straightforward to play there. As an anchor or as an initiator, I believe that may be the meta for the subsequent few months,” emphasised the 23-year previous participant.
Taking part in VCT Kickoff With out Sayonara
While Staff Vitality’s debut at VCT EMEA Kickoff was a hit throughout, the superteam remains to be lacking one in every of its key star gamers. Ștefan ‘Sayonara’ Mîtcu is supposed to be Vitality’s new duelist prodigy, however can not compete in VCT till his 18th birthday in March.
Due to this fact, the staff will depend on stand-in Bartosz ‘UNFAKE’ Bernacki for the entire of Kickoff and doubtlessly Masters Santiago, the primary international occasion of the 12 months. The Polish participant had a brief stint with Staff Vitality final season and has now returned to fill the gaps on the 2026 roster.
“Even with out Sayonara, we actually need to go to Chile. It’s clearly form of our fundamental purpose going into Kickoff. And with out Sayonara or with him, it wouldn’t actually matter for us,” assured Chronicle.
Furthermore, Chronicle is assured in UNFAKE’s functionality to adapt to totally different roles as wanted by the staff.
“I believe it’s additionally essential to say UNFAKE’s talents as a result of he actually shocked everybody on the staff,” shared Chronicle.
He added: “On another maps, we clearly needed to take a look at some stuff. And on a few of the maps, we’ll most likely have him on not simply Sova or Fade, and that’s already form of a problem. I believe he did it rather well, not less than in scrims. We’ll discover out in officers the way it will go.”
Staff Vitality might be again on the VCT EMEA stage later in the present day, going through off towards Staff Liquid within the higher bracket. The match might be broadcast by way of the league’s official Twitch and YouTube channels.
