"Can't win against Manchester City with 11 Ronaldos": Fnatic Valorant's Alfajer, Chronicle, and crashies dive deep into team synergy and more

Despite ups and downs, Fnatic has remained one of the best Valorant teams in the world ever since the inception of the VCT. After a slow start to 2025 at the EMEA Kickoff, the squad appears to be back to form, having won all three of its EMEA Stage 1 matches. As part of an effort to increase outreach, Fnatic partnered with Red Bull in January 2025.

Thanks to this partnership, I got the chance to speak to Emir "Alfajer" Ali Beder, Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov, and Austin "crashies" Roberts on April 14, 2025.

The conversation covered a lot of ground, going deep into the grimier aspects of Valorant esports, like practice schedules, team-building difficulties, and so on. The players were candid and provided in-depth answers to my questions in the limited time we had.

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Fnatic Valorant's Alfajer, Chronicle, and crashies talk about the VCT schedule, share their personal goals for the year, and more

crashies, Alfajer, and Boaster share a light moment on stage during VCT Kickoff 2025 (Image via Riot Games/David Edwards)

Q. I’ll start with a slightly non-game-related question. There are a lot of factors helping drive esports organizations like Fnatic into the mainstream — as compared to more traditional sports like football and basketball. Where and how does a brand collaboration like Red Bull x Fnatic come in, especially from a player perspective?

crashies: So for me, I kind of grew up with, like, traditional sports, as you said. I played baseball a lot, and to see how far Red Bull has come, especially by partnering with esports teams and gamers in general, [in helping them] become athletes.

I think it's like a super important thing for the scene, in general, to keep growing. And I think it's just cool to be a part of as well. There are just so many opportunities nowadays that didn't exist back then. So I think everyone in the space is just grateful to have the opportunity. And, hopefully, it continues to grow.

Q. Some of you guys have appeared in the last two iterations of the Red Bull Home Ground, with the latest one in 2024. How do you think the tournament grew in that period? Also, of the many off-season tournaments that take place, why — apart from marketing — has the RBHG emerged as the most popular?

Chronicle: I like that in terms of Red Bull Home Ground, as a tournament, is very much consistent. You know what to expect from Red Bull when they organize the tournaments.

It's pretty cool that they support us during the off-seasons for Valorant, because obviously, we don't have that many tournaments during that time, or their importance is sometimes very much questionable.

Red Bull is one of the top tier off-season tournaments for us to play in. Their choice of locations is also super good. This year it was Berlin, pretty much boring for our Berlin boys. Last year, it was in Tokyo, which was very nice to visit again — its a very special place. Overall, they keep the off-season interesting.

Q. You guys are off to a fantastic start once again — after a fairly underwhelming Kickoff. I’m sure you get it a lot, but internally, what holds you back from performing right at the start of the season?

Alfajer: Except 2023, we didn't start the years that great and we had bad starts. I think its because of two things. One of the things is that at Kickoff, you don't have that many chances. If you lose you're out. Its just weird and bulls***t, I guess.

The second thing is the new players and the new coaches we had. As you can see, in Stage 1, we are in form right now and we were good. So, I don't know what goes on during Kickoff. It's not our tournament, I guess.

Chronicle has been the supportive backbone of the team throughout his tenure on the Fnatic Valorant team (Image via Riot Games/David Edwards)

Q. How do you guys feel about the VCT format changes implemented this year? Especially with extended period, the revised ascension/relegation scheme, and so on? And to add to this, how have the changes in the coaching department impacted the team?

Chronicle: Overall, the extended year is overall pretty great because obviously, we have at least one more tournament coming to the year schedule. You might have mixed opinions on things like, "Do we really need that or not?" But, uh, for us as esports players, it's always good to at least play something rather than not playing at all.

At the same time, I mean, the year didn't really change that much compared to the last year, except for that extended year. So, I mean, for us, it's almost the same.

Maybe I misunderstood your question, what exactly you wanted to talk about. So maybe you can repeat it again.

Q. There was a lot of talk about there not being enough gaps between tournaments and it becoming really tiresome for players. With respect to that, do you think the changed format helps you guys in a significant way?

Chronicle: Actually, I don't think it helped that much. I mean, we can look at Kickoff and Bangkok. Teams that played both tournaments — they played Kickoff, and literally just after like one or two weeks, they already come to play Bangkok. Except for China. China has its own special schedule, I guess, which we can't really control.

But yeah, I mean, almost every single region right now, they have maximum one week and they already have to play another tournament. If they are out from that tournament, they get to go for another one in one or two weeks.

I would be fine with this schedule. But the problem is that, with the amount of games and how important they are, you always have to practice a lot. And that's what makes our schedule kind of tiring. If you're just consistent in practice mode, you don't really have that much time to go on rest, unless you're consistently losing.

But even if you are consistently losing, then like after one week, you still go for consistent practicing. So I mean, no matter what you do as a tournament organizer, it's always hard to balance the time.

I think it's very important for the community to understand that for esports players or esports teams, no matter which schedule it will be, it will always be tiring. Especially for teams who are consistently doing top placements — going very far into the tournament, they're playing a lot of matches as well. It's giving them more playtime than ever because, obviously, you also have to practice a lot. So it's just an unfair schedule.

Q: (To crashies) The last thing I expected before this season was to see you play in the EMEA — after being part of some of the most “American” lineups in NA. Cultural differences of living in a different continent aside, what has it been like adjusting to what I assume is a very different team environment?

crashies: Yeah, so firstly, moving kind of across the world to a different region is a big step for me, just because, you said it, I've been in America basically my whole career. So I think just taking the step to do that is a big thing in itself.

And I think I just like went into it head first, I didn't really look back and I just like accepted the challenge, because life is all about challenges and you know how you take them. And I think I adjusted pretty well. It's not really much different to life in America.It's just like different weather, different food, different culture.

But I mean, it's when you're practicing so much, like it all kind of feels the same at the end of the day. So, like, I haven't really thought about it too much. It just kind of came pretty natural to me, I would say.

Coming into Fnatic, it's definitely much different than how NRG was, especially last year. It was just not an enjoyable environment to be in. And I've said this multiple times: It was just not fun to play. And, you know, practice every day wasn't fun. And then I come here and just like a total 360, like everyone enjoys showing up every day, like everyone's friends with each other.

Everyone enjoys playing with each other. And the vibes are just, you know, amazing every day. So I'm super grateful to be here.And yeah, hopefully we keep on winning and doing our thing.

Q: In conversation with kaquka before the Apeks match last week, Boaster said that Fnatic is a team of “five great teammates,” in comparison to Vitality, whom he called “five great players.” How would you characterize this differentiation, considering you've been on a few big teams yourself?

crashies: Last year, we were kind of called the super team in NRG because we had Demon1 and Marved and all that. So I kind of know from experience, like five great players don't make a great team.

And I think on this team, we just have a bunch of role players and people that know how to set each other up for success. And we just know how to work with each other.

Again, it's just been a complete 360 with teammates being friends and knowing how to talk out issues and things like that. A good thing that we have going for us is that no matter how big or small the problem is, everyone can always say how they feel, and we can always come to a conclusion as a team. And that isn't usually how all teams go.

It's hard to say like teams like Vitality, how they operate from the inside because we're on the outside. So I can't really talk about, you know, how they operate.

Alfajer: I think, in general, we have really good individual skills. Everyone has really good skills, but I think the biggest difference between us and other teams is the hype and energy. Because everyone is really friends with each other, we have really good energy, and everyone is so hype and excited to play every day. That makes it more fun and better, I guess.

Chronicle: I would say that from a viewer perspective, it's very hard to actually tell what is a super team. People call the teams that are built with just five strong individual players with probably the best stats on VLR.GG a super team. It is easy to disprove what most people think about super teams.

Team building is such a hard stuff to actually manage. There are a lot of aspects of building a team. Team mentality, how everyone adds up to that. The same about individual skill; how everyone adds to each other's. It's all about synergizing with each other. Obviously, no team can win when it will be just five individuals against five people actually playing as a team. Like it's just tough, it's impossible.

Every time you look at the viewers calling this one a super team, its often based on some small success. I'm not going to go into examples, but people can see it already. In the case of some other teams. It doesn't matter which team you build, it's just like how you build it.

Alfajer: I will give you one example from football. You can't win against Manchester City with 11 Ronaldos.

Chronicle: We obviously have only one Ronaldo. But to be fair, he's (Alfajer) right. If you have one of the best-built and synergized teams and you just put 11 of the best players of football against them, you will never win, just because it's impossible.

We also had our own super team, obviously in 2023, but that was also a lucky super team because we also had synergy even there. People that also synergize with each other, actually have a good mental, and they are ready to win. I mean, obviously this team is going to smash.

I mean, we kind of smashed it that year. People call it the best team from that year, even though we didn't win Champs. Still, it is what it is. And the same goes for almost every single super team.

I'll say that management in esports is still trying to find their path and how to build a roster. Esports is obviously still a new thing. And the way you can build a roster is still unknown to many people in that industry, I would say.

Cow Paolo has become the team's unofficial ambassador since VCT LOCK//IN (Image via Riot Games/David Edwards)

Q. (to Alfajer) You joined Fnatic when you were quite young, and thanks to your skills, you have garnered a significant fan following. What has that been like? Do you think this has had any negative impact on your life?

Alfajer: I think there has only been positive sides. The only negative I can think of, it will be the fact that I've been apart from my family a long time. That's kind of negative because I'm the guy who likes his family, and living away from his family at like 16, 15 was kind of hard. But I am just used it right now. But other than that, it's all positive side.

Q: Apart from winning titles, which I am assuming is one of the main goals of the team, what are some individual goals you guys are focusing on this year?

crashies: For me, obviously winning titles is definitely number one. But for number two, just come back to the form that I know I can play in because I kind of showed it at the beginning of the year, or I guess in the first game. And yeah, I mean, just looking to come back to that form.

Alfajer: I think it's to win Champions, and take my title back. The best Sentinel in the world.

Chronicle: I think empowering myself, just to say that. And, obviously, boost my teammates since I'm kind of supportive of the team most of the time. I want to make my team feel comfortable in what they do. When I do that, everyone will feel better and we'll win more.

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Fnatic has two more matches left in VCT EMEA Stage 1. The first is against GiantX on April 17, 2025, and the second is against Team Heretics on April 25.