Fnatic substitute player Maks “kamyk” Rychlewski will replace Emir “Alfajer” Beder one more time at VCT EMEA tomorrow as the starting lineup player continues to deal with visa issues preventing stop him from flying to Berlin, Germany.
Fnatic said it’s working hard to bring Alfajer back to the starting lineup “as soon as possible,” but there’s nothing the organization can do in the short term but wait, according to Fnatic’s VALORANT team director Colin “CoJo” Johnson.
“We got an update yesterday that they are prioritizing visas for earthquake victims so that’s where the further delay comes from,” CoJo said. “We got good news on his long-term visa this week—but just waiting on the short-term solution to come through any day.”
Fnatic are off to a great start in VCT EMEA even without Alfajer. The team played just fine with kamyk and cruised past Giants in their opening match on Monday, March 27.
Fnatic defeated Giants 2-0 thanks to an easy 13-3 victory on Icebox and a 13-11 win on Split, showing that Jake “Boaster” Howlett’s tactical system can work even if they don’t have full force. The team had a dominant run at VCT LOCK//IN São Paulo between February and early March and lifted the trophy after beating world champions LOUD in the grand finals.
Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov and Leo Janesson were the players with the most frags against Giants, having got 35 and 31 respectively, but kamyk also didn’t do badly. The Polish player used Killjoy and Cypher and finished with a positive K/D ratio and a 1.09 rating, which is higher than star duelist Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev got, according to VLR.gg’s statistics.
Fnatic will play BBL tomorrow at 11am CT in the second round of VCT EMEA. Their adversary lost the opening match 0-2 to Karmine Corp after two close maps on Icebox and Split.
