As a newly formed player, Fnatic’s entry fragger and duelist Emir “Alfajer” Ali Beder has been through alot. Years later, when it came time to pick a name to represent him and his skills, he settled on the nickname of his father’s favorite racehorse “Alfajer”.
And similar to a racehorse, Alfajer ran straight out of the gate in May at the Valorant Champions Tour EMEA Stage Two Challengers group stage. With the overall highest average combat score of any player not only in the tournament but in Europe, Alfajer is quickly stomping down the track toward being one of the best rookie players in their first year of play and competition, but unexpectedly he wasn’t always seen as the young prodigy he’s showing out to be right now.
Alfajer got his start for team Surreal in 2021, while playing in Turkey for almost an entire year. Over there he immediately topped the scoreboards and stood out statistically as one of the best players while being efficient, according to the stats website VLR.gg, Alfajer is achieving 152.3 average damage per round in the Valorant Champions Tour Stage One EMEA Promotion, which finished not a long time ago on April 9.
This incredible performance kept him on the radars of several top teams in the region outside of his soon to come home, Fnatic. During the offseason, he was heavily scouted by both BIG and Acend(previous world champion), but neither team ultimately decided to sign the youngster.
He later stated that it was absolutely heartbreaking to hear the rumors and possibilities, while at the end not flourishing to his expectations.
Alfajer said BIG and Acend, the latter of which was victorious at VCT Champions back in December of 2021, turned him down. He said BIG chose another player because they had more overall experience, while Acend told him his English wasn’t good enough to communicate between the different parties. These decisions are overall understandable as it’s hard to visualize a piece without it playing at the top level for a while, nevertheless currently it seems both BIG and Acend missed big time after not signing him.
Alfajer has played three games already with Fnatic and hasn’t lost a single match. In the Valorant Champions Tour Stage Two EMEA, Fnatic took down FunPlus Phoenix, OG LDN UTD, and quite comical Acend. Alfajer, similar to previous competitions, has the highest average combat score of any player in Europe at a total of 292.6, according to VLR.gg. He, alongside Fnatic accomplice James “Mistic” Orfila, which has the second highest kill assistance percentage with 82 have been tearing apart the competition.
It is important to include fellow star teammate player Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev in the conversation, as his playstyle allows Alfajer to play the duelist role when necessary, becoming even more flexible. This pairing has allowed Fnatic to become arguably the best team in the tournament, and they don’t seem to slow down any time soon.
Fnatic are aiming to enter the VCT Masters in Copenhagen, the second international event of the year. They need to earn one of the three slots available to EMEA teams in the playoffs.
Alfajer will likely have to show up with incredible performances with even more consistency in order to achieve this.
