"It's made everyone more hungry": Fnatic's head coach Milan on consecutive runner-up placings and road to Champions

Fresh off a hard-fought victory against Karmine Corp, Fnatic's head coach Milan "Milan" de Meij sat down with us to reflect on the gruelling past couple of months as the European fan-favourites' head coach.

It has been "all gas, no breaks" for Milan, plugged into Fnatic's system as head coach immediately after VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - EMEA Kickoff. The newly appointed head coach led his team through a tough VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - EMEA Stage 1, and made the finals of both VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Toronto 2025 and EWC VALORANT - Esports World Cup 2025 all in the span of just four months.

Milan's perspective on the rookie of the year

The biggest unknown coming into this new Fnatic lineup was Kajetan "kaajak" Haremski, a young Duelist player who notably won VCT 2024 - Ascension: EMEA with Apeks. Yet the Polish star dominated all of Stage 1, being the most impactful player on Fnatic's star-studded lineup, and consistently put up big numbers in Toronto to aid the team's lower-bracket run to the Grand Finals.

When asked about his involvement in Kaajak's consistent impact throughout 2025, especially evident in his performance in the match prior to this interview, Milan commented, "he's just very willing to learn, listen to feedback and try ideas that we propose to him, alongside being exceptionally skilled."

Added to the team as a replacement for Fnatic's long-time star Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev, Kaajak had enormous shoes to fill at the start of the year. Yet, Milan claims that he "has not only filled them, but has done infinitely better."

He's the best debutant in the world.

VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - EMEA Stage 2

Fnatic

2

X

1

Karmine Corp

Group Omega, Best of 3 - July 18, 2025 - 6:15PM

13

Bind

7

10

Lotus

13

13

Icebox

11

Fnatic

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

kaajak

1.35

271

65/48/11

+17

1.35

76.7%

172.5

33%

71%

12

5

crashies

1.23

241

58/45/19

+13

1.29

78.1%

176.1

34%

75%

3

1

Chronicle

1.06

214

51/51/12

0

1.00

73.6%

134.4

26%

60%

9

6

Alfajer

0.73

156

39/51/8

-12

0.76

61.6%

108.1

27%

47%

9

10

Boaster

0.69

131

31/46/21

-15

0.67

65.7%

91.7

22%

42%

5

7

Karmine Corp

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

avez

1.32

263

65/48/14

+17

1.35

70.1%

167.8

29%

50%

5

5

SUYGETSU

1.00

196

49/47/18

+2

1.04

69.8%

130.0

35%

38%

6

10

marteen

0.99

204

44/51/26

-7

0.86

74.6%

134.9

35%

44%

8

10

Saadhak

0.88

164

39/49/27

-10

0.80

73.8%

107.0

28%

42%

5

7

Elite

0.86

186

44/49/10

-5

0.90

67.6%

124.7

47%

42%

5

7

Kaajak was by far the best player on FNATIC in their latest match.

Coming up short in two consecutive international events

Milan also took some time to reflect upon the two most recent international events Fnatic attended. The EMEA team came up short and were the runner-up at both. "It's made everyone more hungry," the head coach revealed about the team's attitude following these results, "every time you get second place, it forces you to acknowledge that you messed up because ultimately if you get into a final, you should always be able to win it."

"Losing the first time (in Toronto) was a pure moment where we all shared our sadness and our frustrations, but mostly just sadness because it felt rough," Milan shared. A hard-fought grand final between Fnatic and Paper Rex, where both teams were neck-in-neck throughout the series, saw Fnatic conceding the trophy to the (former) uncrowned kings Paper Rex.

On the contrary, "after EWC was mostly frustration, from losing a series that I think for many was considered the biggest choke maybe in the history of esports," Milan states. After dominating two maps in 26-5 round fashion against Team Heretics, Fnatic failed to close out the best-of-five series and proceeded to lose the next three maps.

"Fortunately," Milan says, "we have a really good group that is able to process things very well, and I think that's why today we're able to bounce back so quickly." The squad's mental recovery was evident in their win against a tough Karmine Corp opponent, pulling out all the stops to secure a narrow victory.

All eyes on Champions

As the leader in Championship points in EMEA, Milan states that "this win puts us in a very safe spot for qualifying to Champions," where a couple more victories this split guarantees a Champions appearance from Fnatic. "Realistically we're already in, so I'm not too worried about making Champs," he says. Instead, the bigger priority for Milan and the rest of the team is to "work towards that map pool."

"Champs is essentially three different maps from EWC, the last tournament that we played, and now we have a month and a half to transition from this map pool of seven maps to a entirely different map pool where the maps that we looked the shakiest on are the ones that remain."

Fnatic's limited map pool was what hindered them from lifting the trophy in Toronto, with Milan admitting that "the veto advantage that Paper Rex had played a very big part." Fnatic were forced to play on a shaky Sunset map and their permaban, Pearl. With this weakness in mind, it's up to Milan and the team to step up to the challenge and position themselves to be a top contender for the Champions trophy.

I think we're the best team in the world right now, but we haven't gotten the silverware to prove that yet. That's why we're very excited to go to Champs and show what we are actually capable of.

Follow our latest coverage of Stage 2 with similar interviews by staying tuned to THESPIKE.GG.