Fnatic Just Signed the IGL Who 2-0'd Them Last Year
Cloud joins Fnatic on a three-year deal mid-Masters London, and his history against this team makes it more interesting.
While Masters London is running without them, Fnatic dropped news yesterday: Kirill "Cloud" Nekhozhin is joining from GIANTX on a three-year contract.
Three years. Mid-season. For the IGL who went 2-0 against Fnatic in the EMEA Stage 2 playoffs last year, before losing 0-3 to Heretics in the final.
The Roster Context
Fnatic has had a hole in their lineup all year. Veqaj joined in November 2025, went inactive in April with health issues, and missed all of Stage 1. CyvOph came in as a temp, played the full Stage 1 run, and has now been released. Fnatic did not qualify for Masters London and spent Stage 1 stitching together a roster. Three years is not a "we needed someone for Stage 2" deal. That is Fnatic saying Cloud is their guy going forward.
Who Cloud Is
He is 22, a Russian IGL who has been GIANTX's captain since they entered the VCT in 2022. His peak was 2025 EMEA Stage 2: took GX to the grand final, beat Fnatic 2-0 in the lower bracket along the way. He is a Sova specialist, which gets complicated since Fnatic already has crashies as their primary initiator. Double initiator works, but someone is playing off-role, and the calling split between Cloud and Boaster is an open question.
My Take
A three-year commitment on a 22-year-old IGL at the top of EMEA competition is the right kind of bet. Fnatic needed to stop patching the roster and actually commit to a direction.
How Cloud and Boaster split the calling duties is going to make or break this. Stage 2 kicks off July 15. That is not a lot of runway.