Enzo and Alfajer join Fnatic roster ahead of VCT Challengers 2

Emir Ali “Alfajer” Beder and Enzo “Enzo” Mestari, formerly known as “Fearoth”, have joined Fnatic’s VALORANT roster ahead of the upcoming VALORANT Champions Tour 2022: EMEA Stage 2 Challengers.

According to the announcement made on May 9, Alfajer and Enzo will take the spots of Andrey “BraveAF” Gorchakov and Martin “Magnum” Pekov. While Alfajer joins from Turkish organisation Surreal Esports, Enzo joins from Alliance.

Roster revamp following setback in Reykjavík

BraveAF was suspended his messages supposedly displaying support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine surfaced on the internet. His suspension was announced two weeks before the start of the VCT 2022 Stage 1 Masters in Reykjavík and Fnatic proceeded to fill his spot with Enzo on loan from Alliance.

Moreover, Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev tested positive for Covid-19 shortly before the Masters started. He was replaced with Joona “H1ber” Parviainen from KOI as a stand-in for the competition. The team with new players weren’t able to lead Fnatic to success at the event in Reykjavik, as they failed to win a single game.

The Fnatic management followed with a roster revamp announcement ahead of the next stage of VCT. Besides laying off BraveAF, Magnum has been benched in order to “add more consistent firepower to the team”.

New roles in the roster 

According to the release, the roles within the new Fnatic roster will reshuffle with the arrival of new players. James “Mistic “Orfila will take over the flex role and the team captain Jake “Boaster” Howlett will be the team’s IGL, as well as the controller. While Alfajer’s role in the Fnatic team hasn’t yet been revealed, Enzo will be playing support.

Alfajer is a Turkish teenage player, who attended his first VCT tournament with Surreal Esports at the VCT 2021 Turkey circuit. Despite being the underdog, the team’s performance at the event was remarkable and the 16-year-old started drawing the attention of numerous esports organizations. He is often seen picking up Killjoy, Raze, and Chamber, so it is likely that he will play different roles depending on what the team needs to boost its firepower.

Jacob Harris, Head Coach of Fnatic, commented on Alfajer’s signing:

“Alfajer has plenty of flexibility in his agent pool which bodes well for long-term success in Fnatic. We want to be able to adapt to the fast-paced meta changes we see in Valorant and we expect that direction to only continue.”

All set for Challengers

The new Fnatic roster seems to be set and ready for Stage 2 of the VCT 2022 EMEA Challengers, scheduled to begin on May 13. The team will be up against the reigning VCT EMEA Champions FunPlus Phoenix in the first round of the tournament on May 14.

Image credit: Fnatic