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It’s official: NRG Esports has parted ways with Pujan “FNS” Mehta, marking the close of a chapter that helped shape North American Valorant as we know it. The news, while not entirely unexpected given the team’s rocky trajectory this season, still hits hard for fans who remember what this roster—especially under FNS’s leadership—once stood for.
At their peak, FNS and his core squad (then under OpTic) were nothing short of titans. From consistent top finishes to an iconic Masters Reykjavík 2022 championship, OpTic under FNS was the benchmark of structure, discipline, and long-game adaptation. They didn’t just win—they rewrote how North American teams approached macro play. Every team feared OpTic on LAN, and FNS was the steady hand steering the ship. When NRG scooped up the core of that OpTic lineup in late 2022, expectations were sky-high. A new org, same brilliance. Right?
Well… not quite.
NRG had flashes of greatness that year, even making a strong showing at Masters Tokyo 2023, but the magic of the OpTic era never fully returned. This year, it all unraveled. From early roster instability to disjointed performances and questionable mid-round calls, NRG stumbled hard in Split 1, a season where they were supposed to reassert dominance. They didn't just lose—they looked lost. Even the addition of fresh firepower couldn't compensate for a team clearly struggling to stay aligned, mentally or tactically.
And then came the news: FNS benched. Now, FNS gone.
It’s easy to look at 2024 and write off the results. But that would ignore a decade-long story. FNS isn’t just a Valorant player—he’s one of the most cerebral FPS IGLs to ever touch a mouse. His CS:GO career saw him lead teams like CLG, where he helped the squad to a top-eight finish at MLG Columbus 2016, and later Complexity, where his strategic mind often outpaced his firepower. He was known for making the most of underdog rosters, building competitive lineups from scraps and instilling structure in chaotic scenes. What he lacked in flashy plays, he more than made up for in reading opponents and setting up his teammates. He wasn’t the most loved CS player—but that’s what made his Valorant redemption arc so sweet.
Then came the stream era.
Off-server, FNS built a second life as one of Valorant’s most compelling streamers. Sharp, sarcastic, brutally honest and occasionally even wholesome, he’s carved out a following of fans who tune in just to hear him roast team comps or break down executes from his dual-monitor command center. He doesn’t sugarcoat, and that’s rare. That same transparency is probably what made him such a good leader—and, ironically, what made him such an easy scapegoat when things started going wrong.
But let’s be real: there’s a strong case that FNS has been the best IGL in Valorant history. No one else has led a team to as many international top-four finishes with as many different metas and rosters. No one else has adapted as fluidly across agent pool shifts, map rotations, and regional playstyle evolutions. And even if his style wasn’t always popular—or understood—it undeniably worked.
Now? He’s out of a team. But don’t expect him to disappear. Whether he finds a new home before the next split or continues cooking takes on stream, FNS will be present. Loudly. Just as loud as whzy yelled that fateful day on stage in LA. "FNS... ERRREE YOUUU OKAEEY???" Honestly, that was the beginning of the end.
And if nothing else, we all know where he’ll be when the next PRX match goes live: sitting back on stream, arms crossed, shaking his head, saying something like, “Yup… classic PRX round.” Blud really thinks he is one of them!
