Fnatic have secured a top three spot at VALORANT Champions Paris after pulling off an incredible comeback against Paper Rex. And while the entire team performed remarkably, it wouldn’t have been possible without their reliable stand-in, who, despite being sleep deprived, stepped up in a moment of crisis.
Enterprise Esports’ Domagoj “Doma” Fancev was called up in the late hours of Sept. 27 and offered an opportunity to play instead of Emir “Alfajer” Beder, one of Fnatic’s top-performing VALORANT players who had fallen sick due to undisclosed causes.
“I was in my bed just chilling,” Doma said in a post-match interview, recalling the moment when Fnatic contacted. “Looked at flights, saw one at 9am. And yeah, got approval from my org… I arrived at 11am [in Paris] and I woke up at 5.”
Later, in an X post, Doma revealed that he was on four hours of sleep and arrived at the venue straight from the airport. He wished Alfajer a speedy recovery before thanking Alex, Enterprise’s Head Coach, and Cojo, Fnatic VALORANT’s Team Director, for “making it happen.”
Despite the rushed plans, Doma managed to perform on par with the rest of Fnatic’s roster. He delivered several multi-kill rounds and excellent support using Tejo and Killjoy throughout their series against PRX.
The Croatian pro’s Killjoy utility usage single-handedly secured multiple rounds for Fnatic on the series-tying Haven and the deciding map Lotus, where Fnatic flipped a 1-9 deficit and strung 12 straight rounds on defenders side to seal the 2-1 series comeback. There was never a moment when Doma seemed unprepared or out of sync with the team.
Fnatic sure knew what they were doing when they announced Doma’s appearance right before the series. “We’re confident with his skillset, past at Fnatic and chemistry with the boys that we can still put on a strong fight for today’s matchup,” their post on X reads.
In case you were unaware, long before Enterprise and a few other stints, Doma was part of Fnatic’s 2021 roster that finished runner-up in Masters Reykjavík. He was also hired as a temporary stand-in for EMEA Stage Two and Champions when Leo moved to an inactive position after VCT Masters Shanghai in 2024.
Going forward, Fnatic will be facing NRG in the upper bracket final on Oct. 3 for a spot in the grand final of VALORANT Champions Paris. That’s five days from now, so Alfajer is expected to fully recover by then. Doma’s appearance was likely only for a single series.
Even then, fans will remember: it was with Doma, an emergency substitute player, that Fnatic managed to pull off a historic comeback against the APAC powerhouse in the year’s most prestigious global event.
