2025 Valorant Update

With the exciting announcement of Crashies joining our roster, we wanted to share some updates around what 2025 looks like for Fnatic VALORANT.

As you’re all aware, this year has been a whirlwind. We lifted two VCT EMEA trophies, but have also been managing player health concerns, not performing our best on the international stage and making some perhaps unexpected changes to our roster. Firstly, we want to address the situation with Leo. There have been minimal changes since our last update as we continue to monitor Leo’s health, and due to this he will not be joining us for VCT Kick Off 2025. He will remain on our inactive roster as we continue to monitor his health with the hope he’ll rejoin the boys on stage once again in the near future.

With this in mind, we had to find a new Initiator. One that had the veteran experience, the hunger to win and the communication skills to support the team, and whilst we assessed many potential options, Crashies was definitely the stand out. Our Team Director, Colin ‘CoJo’ Johnson, shares,

“Finding a player at such a late stage of the off-season was really challenging - but in our call with Crashies we were very impressed by his hunger, drive, and compatibility with how we like to do things at FNATIC Valorant. I think his veteran experience and solid mid-rounding will help to fill the hole that Leo has left during his absence and I think the structure of the team should be much more sound moving forward.”

We also want to take this opportunity to thank Sayonara for his efforts during both Red Bull Home Ground and Riot Games One. Truly one of the most exciting young talents in VCT at the moment and it was an honour to play with him during the offseason. We’re excited to see where his talents will take him and look forward to seeing him in VCT in 2026.

We’re also very excited about the recent addition of Kaajak, who won Ascension 2024 with Apeks and has already slotted in well with the team during the recent offseason events. His ability to play the 4 current meta duelists (namely: Raze, Yoru, Jett and Neon) and fitting the Fnatic VALORANT player mould of being eager to learn, having good vibes and being incredibly passionate about winning matched the key attributes we were looking for. To give more insight into Kaajak’s trial, CoJo shares,

“Kaajak was a player that we were closely watching especially during Ascension and overall he has impressed a lot. He was the final trial we did and we had definitely saved the best for last as he dropped over 30 kills on multiple occasions. It’s been very nice to work with him thus far and we have already seen him start to grow both in confidence and comfort in his few short weeks here.”

But the entry of Kaajak meant the departure of Derke, someone who has been a true embodiment of Fnatic VALORANT for almost 3 years. A core part of the twice-International event winning team in 2023 and a stand out player for multiple International Splits, he leaves big boots to fill, but we’re looking forward to meeting him on the server at his new team Vitality..

We’re incredibly excited for the 2025 season, and whilst it might take some time for the roster to settle in, get used to new playstyles and in some cases adjust to their new home in Berlin, we’re confident in getting some great results in 2025 and look forward to your unwavering support. #ALWAYSFNATIC