NRG FNS Interview: 2025 Is Definitely My Last Year As A Pro Player

Whenever you talk about the best IGLs in the world of Valorant competitive, FNS aka FiNESSE is always among the top. After a competitive break, he returned to NRG mid-season in 2024 and is ready to set his foot ot the stage of VCT 2025 with a revamped roster.

Ahead of Kickoff Americas starting on January 17, I sat down with FNS to discuss his plans for the season, thoughts on the roster, his retirement and more. Read the full conversation below!

Rabia: First of all, Happy New Year, and thank you for taking the time today to talk to me.

FNS: Thank you, you too!

Rabia: So I'm going to start start off by talking about 2025. Every person has new year resolutions. I want to ask you, what are your goals this year, whether personally or professionally?

FNS: Personally, I want to stay in touch with my family and friends as much as I possibly can because, as an esports player, it's kind of hard to keep in touch with everybody and stay connected just because of how busy we are and all, but I'm going to try to do that and be better at it.

And then professionally, obviously, just stick to what we've been doing throughout the offseason—kind of trust the process, so to speak—and practice every day, putting the time and effort in to be the best we can possibly be.

Rabia: Definitely, I agree with you. One of the hardest parts of being a pro is staying away from family and friends. But this year, Masters is coming to Canada, which is your hometown. So I wanna ask, can we expect Mehta family there to support you?

FNS: Yeah, most definitely! If we make it to that event, for sure my family is gonna attend. I think Sam (s0m) said he'll bring family members as well, and then Adam (mada) is also from Toronto, so he'll probably bring family too. So, it’d be pretty cool if we made that event for sure.

Rabia: Next, I want to talk about you joining NRG back again around mid-season last year. You've been pretty open about enjoying your streaming career. Yes, you missed the competitive kick and that is probably why you came back. So, I want to ask, what does the future hold for you? Are you going to continue after 2025 season? Will you reevaluate at the end of this year based on the results, or are we gonna to see FNS for the last time on the stage?

FNS: Yeah, this is definitely my last year. I mean, I've had plenty of time to reevaluate things and kind of see where I'm at, and it's just a good time to hang it up and do something else. Streaming, obviously, like you mentioned, was a very enjoyable experience for me. But it was also something I didn’t think I was going to be as good at as I was. Personally, I enjoyed it so much because it allowed me to just be myself, and that's the part I liked the most. 

So, it's an obvious next step for me and see how far I can take that whole thing. Before streaming, I didn’t really have another passion for anything else—I just wanted to stay in esports. But now that I do have a passion for something else, it’s a good time for me to pursue that. And, obviously, I’m 32 now and I can only play for so long. I just can’t see myself doing another year of the same grind—competing, traveling as much as I do, and all the other things that make it hard to stay in one place. You’re always traveling with your team, and it’s tough.

I think I’ve had a pretty good career—I’ve done everything I wanted to in esports, honestly even more than that. I’ve pretty much experienced it to its fullest, and that’s the greatest thing for me. I’m ending my career in a way that most people don’t get to—I’m doing it on my terms. I’ve experienced everything I wanted, and now I’m calling it quits.

That’s why it was easier for me to make this decision because firstly, streaming came up, and it’s something I’m passionate about. And number two, I think I’ve accomplished most of my goals. If I fall short on a few, it’s not the end of the world. I’m pretty satisfied with where esports has taken me.

Rabia: Personally, I want you to be on stage, but I also miss your streams and your watch parties. Even when I used to work, I always had your stream open in the other tab.

FNS: [Laughing] It's funny because so many people in my chat say the same thing, or people in my comments are always like, “Yeah, we want you to compete, but we also just want you to stream.” So it's funny that you say that. 

Rabia: Talking about the roster next—you’ve mentioned in the past, that you guys had synergy issues in the past. But with this new roster, you're looking pretty strong. You won SOOP Valorant League and SEN City Classic, and you haven’t lost many matches—just two, if I remember correctly. So how confident are you coming into VCT 2025? And how is the team looking, according to you?

FNS: I mean, we're pretty confident as a team. Obviously, it helps that we won our off-season events and that we're looking much better than maybe some people expected. That being said, it's just a matter of sticking to what we know and that's what we’re doing so far. We don’t want to change too much—just stick to the routines we’ve built and not divert from them too much.

But as far as my expectations go, they’re always going to be the same. Even if we had a poor off-season, I’d still say I’m pretty confident in the team. I like that our synergy is at a point where we are able to communicate so well together and talk through issues to get to the bottom of them. Bonkar has been a huge help in that regard. He’s great at facilitating those conversations, so overall, it’s been a good experience with this new team. It feels fresh.

Obviously, we have rookies who are hungry to prove themselves brings new energy, and they’ve done a great job in the off-season. Hopefully, that continues, and we keep improving.

Rabia: About the head coach, you’ve been with Chet for most of your career. Now you’re working with Bonkar, who’s a genius. How has the experience been with him and how does it compare to working with Chet?

FNS: I think Bonkar gives me a lot of freedom to call the way I want—not to say Chet didn’t, but Bonkar does it even more. It’s easier to get into the flow of the game when I can call things off intuition sometimes.

I think the biggest difference between them is the energy level that Bonkar brings. Chet was always level-headed and very calm, which sometimes was detrimental to the team’s mood. With Bonkar, on days when players aren’t in the best mood or aren’t happy, he’s surprisingly always the person with the highest-energy in the room. I think that is such a big deal because we feed off his energy a lot. Even if you’re having a bad day or morning, his energy naturally cheers you up.

Also, during our practice sessions, not everyone’s always in a good mood, but he does a great job of bringing everyone together and keeping us focused. You want to play for someone like that because they elevate your mood and make you happier than you might be otherwise. Tactically, he’s excellent too.

He’s also very big on asking for our opinions, which is so important. He ensures the players are comfortable and if there's something wrong, he immediately addresses those issues. The fact that he facilititates so many of those open conversations, it leads to a healthy team environment where we can problem-solve and come up with solutions together without egos getting in the way.

Of course, arguments can happen when you’re competing—it’s natural—but Bonkar is always there to try to figure things out. He’s genuinely focused on making the team win and getting the best out of everyone. So far, I think he’s done a great job with that.

Rabia: While I’d love to continue this conversation for let's say an hour, I know we have limited time. So I’ll wrap it up with a couple more questions. I want to get your thoughts on Tejo. Have you had the chance to try him out?

FNS: Yes, we’ve played with him. I’m not going to disclose whether we’re using him or not, but obviously, he has a very good kit as an initiator. He’s extremely versatile, and there’s a lot you can do with him. We’ve come up with some great ideas on how to use him. So, we’ll see how things go—I can’t say much more about it. 

Rabia: I’d love a surprise, haha. A follow-up to this: like you mentioned, you’ve had some time to play with him. But then again, there aren’t many days left until the season begins, and he has been in the game for just about a week and it can mess up with the strats. Sometimes, a team might pick him up, and you might not have the counter you need. Do you think it should’ve been allowed in the kickoff, or should Riot have waited?

FNS: I think it’s crazy. It’s ridiculous that this keeps happening. I’ve been very vocal about it on my stream. I’ve said it multiple times, told my manager to tell Riot as well—I’ve done everything in my power to make these people understand that, from a competitive point of view, from a player-first perspective, it’s just incredibly difficult to accept that there's a massive update like this one week before the season starts.

I think any player would agree with me. It just shouldn’t happen. In the end, we’ll deal with it—it is what it is—but Riot really needs to work on changing the timing of these updates. I understand that sometimes things don’t go as planned, and schedules shift. But they need to consider our perspective as well. If they absolutely have to release an agent, at least wait until the next tournament to allow him or give us a month to adapt, so we can get the best out of the agent.

My opinion will always be the same: it’s not viable. It’s not good to add an agent a week before the season begins. I don’t think any professional player would ever be happy about that. We’re all sitting here practicing for a month, trying to win, and then suddenly, this update drops out of nowhere. And guess what? You’re playing him in the Kickoff. So now you’ve got a week to figure it out. Good luck.

It kind of takes away the competitive… I guess integrity is the word? Most players won’t be okay with it at a competitive level because we care so much about what we do and when something like this impacts our performance due to time constraints, it’s out of our control. But it is something Riot can control. Hopefully, in the future, this doesn’t happen again.

Rabia: Yeah, especially when Championship Points are on the line, every series and event is equally important.

FNS: Exactly.

Rabia: Alright so, we've run out of time, so thank you FNS again for the interview and please stay safe, I know things aren't great in LA. 

FNS: Thank you, and thank you for the interview as well.