Emir “Alfajer” Ali Beder has left FNATIC, ending a 1,641-day stay that began when he joined the organization as a 16-year-old in 2022 and closed with him at 21. The departure was confirmed on November 6, 2026, as FNATIC kept moving through a large offseason rebuild after a disappointing year.
Alfajer arrived from Surreal Esports and quickly became a central part of FNATIC’s Valorant lineup. He split Sentinel and Duelist duties on a roster that also featured Boaster, Derke, Enzo and Mistic, and he stayed with the team through its rise from strong international runs to trophy-winning form.
Alfajer’s farewell after four years with FNATIC
In his goodbye, Alfajer looked back on the age at which he joined and the years that followed. “I started this adventure at the age of 16, and now I am 21 years old,” he said.
He also thanked the organization for what it gave him beyond results. “I would like to thank FNATIC for who they helped me become,” Alfajer said.
His message also went out to the fans who followed FNATIC through its biggest moments and its setbacks. “I have experienced unforgettable moments in my life and each of them will remain special,” he said, before adding thanks to the supporters who backed the team and him during his stay.
That four-year span included some of the defining moments in FNATIC Valorant history. In 2022, the team finished fourth at Masters Copenhagen and placed 5th-6th at Champions İstanbul. Those results came in Alfajer’s first year with the team, when he was still balancing Sentinel and Duelist roles while FNATIC built around one of the most stable cores in the region.
The following year brought the biggest rewards. The source notes that 2023 was the first year of VCT’s partnership era, and FNATIC used it to win two international trophies. The team opened the year by taking VCT LOCK//IN São Paulo, then lifted the Masters Tokyo trophy before finishing fourth at Champions Los Angeles.
Alfajer’s individual performance at Masters Tokyo stood out as well. He finished the event with a 1.33 rating, the highest in the tournament. That run helped cement his place among the most important players in FNATIC’s championship core, and it became one of the clearest markers of his peak on the international stage.
FNATIC’s decline in 2026 set up the reset
FNATIC kept winning domestically after that peak. Since the start of the 2024 season, the team has picked up three regional titles, and it reached runner-up finishes at both Masters Toronto and Champions Paris in 2025. Even with those results, the organization could not keep its streak of international appearances alive in 2026.
The 2026 campaign was FNATIC’s first season without an international stage appearance in the organization’s history. The missed qualification turned the year into the most disappointing stretch of the Alfajer era, especially for a team that had spent several seasons setting the pace in Europe and beyond.
That downturn has already triggered a broad roster shakeup. Since the end of the season, FNATIC has parted ways with Veqaj and crashies. Longtime in-game leader Boaster has also been allowed to explore his options, which leaves one of the team’s most recognizable figures open to a change as well.
The changes have not stopped with the players. Head coach ENGH, coach Desmo and performance coach Szed have all left the team too, leaving FNATIC without the staff that had overseen much of its recent success. The departures leave the organization preparing for a wide-scale rebuild around a much smaller remaining core.
FNATIC’s 2027 rebuild now starts around kaajak and Cloud
VLR.gg’s roster listing now shows kaajak and Cloud as the remaining players on FNATIC’s lineup after the latest departures. That means the organization is heading into 2027 with only a thin base of the squad that defined its strongest years in Valorant.
Alfajer’s exit is the latest sign that FNATIC is breaking down the structure that carried it through its best international stretch. The team’s success in 2023, its regional titles in 2024, and its deep runs in 2025 were all built around a core that no longer exists in its original form.
The roster churn around FNATIC also mirrors a wider offseason trend in Valorant, where several established teams have already started to move on from long-tenured players. Gamer2Go has also reported recent changes elsewhere in the scene, including Paper Rex releasing Jinggg after five years and Sentinels beginning their own rebuild. FNATIC’s moves belong to the same wave, but the Alfajer departure hits a team whose modern identity was tied so closely to one core group.
What remains now is a rebuild that has already moved past the first round of departures and into the hard part: replacing the players and staff who defined FNATIC’s peak years. Alfajer leaves with a trophy-filled record, a Masters Tokyo MVP-level showing by rating, and a farewell that made clear how central FNATIC was to his rise from academy-age prospect to established star.
1,641 days is wild for one org now. starting at 16 and leaving at 21, dude basically grew up in FNATIC colors.
Four years is still a solid run, but this feels more like FNATIC running out of answers than some huge loyalty story.
running out of answers? come on, who’s the better one then?
Boaster next?
Probably depends if he wants to keep playing with a full rebuild around him. I’ve seen teams keep the IGL and still fall apart because the pieces around him changed too much. If the staff is gone too, that makes it even messier. You can keep the voice, but if the roster loses the duelist and sentinel backbone, the whole system can look dead anyway.
I dont think keeping Boaster fixes much now. When the whole staff leaves and the results are gone, it is usually better to reset fully than keep one name for nostalgia.
fair, but they still need some brain on the team or it turns into ranked with a logo on it
Alfajer was the pillar
nah, Boaster was the spine. stars come and go but the IGL kept that thing together.
Boaster mattered a lot, but Alfajer was the guy who could win a round from nothing. That kind of player changes how teams have to space and hold utility, and FNATIC built a ton around that pressure. If you lose the fragging core and the structure at the same time, replacing just the IGL does not really solve the biggest problem.
still think IGL is harder to replace than a flashy rifler
maybe, but without kills the calls look great only on paper
org looks cooked
nah they just hit the reset button too hard this time
maybe, but the button was already flashing red tbh
cooked but still somehow al dente, because they always find a way to make the offseason longer than the season lol
Do you think this kind of rebuild can actually work for FNATIC, or are they losing too much at once? Alfajer, Boaster maybe, and then the coach staff too feels like the whole identity is gone. I know kaajak and Cloud are still there, but that is a tiny base for a team that used to be the standard in Europe. Maybe I am overreacting, but it looks rough from here.
I think they need the hard reset, not another half rebuild. The old core gave them trophies, sure, but this year showed the ceiling was gone and the system was stale. New pieces can work if the org stops trying to copy the old formula and actually builds around the players they keep.
yeah maybe full reset is cleaner, just scary when the base is this small
PRX did it and lived, so it can happen
fair enough, we’ll see if fnatic can cook anything near that level
that Masters Tokyo 1.33 rating is the real flex here. highest in the event and he was still doing sentinel and duelist stuff, that’s nasty
rating doesnt tell the whole story
true, but top rating at the win event still means he was frying
2026 was the wake up call
maybe, but losing your best player and most of the staff at once is not exactly a clean wake up call. feels more like the org got yeeted into rebuild mode
yeah but the drop off started before the exits, that is my point
sure, but missing an event for the first time ever is still a brutal sign. the rebuild was coming either way, now it is just uglier
fair, ugly rebuild season then