When the 2023 VALORANT season began, there was plenty of tier-one talent that wasn’t able to secure a spot on a franchised team, moving to tier two instead to grind their way back. One of these players was a former Fnatic star, and despite not winning Ascension, his skills got him to those finals and now have reportedly secured him another chance in the top tier of VALORANT.
Former Fnatic and Apeks initiator player Enzo Mestari has reportedly reached a verbal agreement to join Team Liquid for 2024, marking his return to the EMEA league, according to Blix.gg. The French player moved to an IGL role after leaving Fnatic in November 2022 and helped lead the mixed European team Apeks to the Ascension EMEA finals in July 2023. Now, he has the opportunity to rejoin another stacked EMEA team but would face off against his former teammates on Fnatic.
While Enzo wasn’t able to reach the same heights that his Fnatic teammates did in 2023, his time with them in 2022 established him as not only a top initiator in the region but a clutch master in LAN environments. The best example of this was in Fnatic’s match against Leviatán at Stage Two Masters in Copenhagen in July 2022, where the final map went to an extended overtime.
When Fnatic were one round away from losing it all, Enzo won a one-vs-three clutch by getting two kills and sticking a defuse. Pros don’t fake, and this is still one of the best examples of a clutch defuse in competitive VALORANT.
Fnatic couldn’t reach the same heights at Champions 2022, losing to DRX and securing a top-six placing. Enzo ended up on the chopping block, and Fnatic replaced him with one of the few regional initiators around his skill level: Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov. Enzo was a free agent but decided to join a Challengers team to compete and earn a spot back in franchising.
He was so close too, getting to the final series of Ascension for the EMEA region. Alas, Apeks were ousted and swept 3-0 by an all-French team, Gentle Mates, which probably stung a little to the French IGL who led Apeks. Then, when the offseason ahead of the 2024 season started, Enzo began to get linked to major EMEA teams, like Karmine Corp, Giants Gaming, and Liquid. As it turns out, Liquid got him, according to the Blix report.
This leaves some questions for the Liquid roster, though, as Igor “Redgar” Vlasov is still signed to the team and was their IGL for 2023, helping lead the team to the regional title despite international disappointments. Enzo has experience playing under a different IGL, like he did for Fnatic, but Liquid have the choice now to run with either Redgar or Enzo as their leader, if they keep both on the same team. If Redgar ends up leaving, Enzo can fill in that role.
