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Fnatic is looking to make major changes to its Valorant roster and the team is well on its way to having one of the best teams in the Europe, Middle-East, and Africa (EMEA) region. James “Mistic” Orfila and Enzo “Enzo” Mestarion were released from the roster by Fnatic despite the team being one of the strongest in the region. However, despite Fnatic’s status as a top EMEA team, it is yet to win a major international LAN and it looks like the organization is done settling for 2nd and 3rd place finishes at major events.
Leo’s arrival could finally make a difference for Fnatic
Fnatic officially announced the signing of former Guild Esports star Leo “Leo” Jannesson. The team is yet to sign its fifth player but we can expect an announcement soon. In 2021 and 2022, Fnatic had Valorant Champions Tour’s Challengers event wins under its belt. But as soon as the team moved past the Challengers stage and competed at international LAN events, it faltered.
In 2021, the team narrowly missed out on its first international LAN win against Sentinels at the grand finals at Masters 2 Reykjavik. The team’s performances throughout 2021 were good enough to qualify for the world championship but it faltered against KRU Esports and went home in the top eight stage.
In 2022, the team secured first place at the EMEA 2 Challengers but could not get past the top four bracket in Masters Copenhagen. While Fnatic has consistent finishes at the top, it has not won a Masters or Champions event and the team wants to change that. This is what the current roster looks like:
Jake “Howlett” Boaster
Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev
Emir “Alfajer” Ali Beder
Leo “Leo” Jannesson
Boaster and Derke have been on the Fnatic roster since 2021 and Alfajer is a more recent pickup who joined Fnatic after a brief stint at Surreal Esports. The team is already looking strong and it needs to find one more player who can round things up.
