FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 crashies Austin Roberts Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder has signed Austin "crashies" Roberts for the 2025 season.

crashies is currently set to take the place of Leo "Leo" Jannesson, who has been inactive since June due to health reasons, as long as is needed. In their announcement article, the team confirmed that Leo will not be able to play for Kickoff.

“Leo is still a member of our team and we're doing everything we can in the background to support his recovery,” explained FNATIC's Team Director Colin "CoJo" Johnson. “It's very hard to predict [Leo's] return at the moment so we've decided to bring in Crashies who we're confident in to fill the role until Leo is ready.”

A longstanding veteran of North American Valorant, crashies is best known for his time with the OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive core that won Masters Reykjavik in 2022 and spent much of the pre-partnerships era contending closely for other titles. Going into the 2023 season, he joined NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #4 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold along with many other members of that core. The roster continued to be a leader in North America, placing fourth at Masters Tokyo, but suffered an unexpected group stage exit at Champions 2023 in Los Angeles.

Despite this, expectations rose even higher for NRG in 2024 as they added world champions Max "Demon1" Mazanov and Ethan "Ethan" Arnold. The superstar roster would face numerous challenges meeting those expectations, undergoing multiple roster changes, ending the Americas regular season with a 4-6 record, and ultimately failing to qualify for all three international events. crashies parted ways with the team in September.

On the other side of the Atlantic, FNATIC faced similarly high expectations coming into 2024 after conquering LOCK//IN and Masters Tokyo in 2023. While still a top team in EMEA, the team struggled to match their previous heights this year as their best international result was a top-six finish at Champions 2024.

“Really happy to have Austin join for 2025 and I know his veteran leadership and mid-rounding will be a huge help to us going into the new season,” CoJo commented.

FNATIC will next play at the Riot Games ONE invitational in Tokyo. As confirmed by CoJo, Ștefan "Sayonara" Mîtcu will play in their game versus ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #2 Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani SyouTa Shota Aoki Xdll Yuto Mizomori on Dec. 14 and crashies will play in their games versus LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee nataNk Nathan Bocqueho and DetonatioN FocusMe DetonatioN FocusMe Japan Rank #3 Meiy Ibuki Seki Art Jinboong Kim Jin-won (김진원) Akame Yu Gwang-hui (유광희) gyen on Dec. 15.

FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 crashies Austin Roberts Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder is now: