UKCSGO can confirm that Cai “CYPHER” Watson will be joining the legendary organisation fnatic, replacing Matúš “MATYS” Šimko.
Can CYPHER return to a Major on fnatic?
Since the young Brit made the crazy Cinderella run, qualifying for the playoffs at the BLAST.tv Paris Major in 2023 under Into The Breach, he’s struggled to consistently find his feet.
CYPHER most recently found himself donning the BC.Game jersey alongside 4/5ths of the players that played on BLEED and, later, UNPAID. The end of his time on BLEED was clouded in controversy as the team cut ties with the organisation following claims of delayed payment of salaries and non-payment of bootcamp expenses, player buyouts and prizemoney.
The orgless squad would then go on to play the RES Regional Champions 2024 LAN under the banner UNPAID. Amusingly enough, this would be the core’s best result as they made it all the way to the grand finals, placing second to Nemiga.
Because of these good results, the core players carried a lot of VRS points entering 2025. As it happened, BC.Game was looking to revamp its core at the beginning of the year, so it only made sense to reunite Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad with his ex-teammates. Instantly, CYPHER and co were off to the races, as only seven days after he was announced, BC.Game qualified for IEM Dallas. Alongside this, this crew of players managed to make the finals of CCT Season 2 Europe Series 18 and do one better in Series 19, winning the whole thing.
Things started to go wrong when they failed to qualify for the Major, crashing out 1-3 in the BLAST.tv Austin Major Europe Regional Qualifier. Funnily enough, the one win they got was a 13-2 win against fnatic in the opening BO1. The misfortune didn’t end there, as in the run-up to IEM Dallas, BC.Game benched jkaem following accusations of him owing $300,000 in gambling debt.
Somehow, it still got worse for BC.Game, as their sub for IEM Dallas, Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy, had to pull out three days before the event started, as he was not granted a U.S. visa to compete in the tournament. Finally, Aleksandar “CacaNito” Kjulukoski was brought up to the plate and ultimately signed to the roster. Understandably so, the roster issues didn’t reflect well on BC.Game’s results as they lost 2-0 to MOUZ and FaZe, placing dead last. Following their exit in Dallas, the European squad competed in a few European events, but had little success.
Into The Breach at the BLAST.tv Paris Major
After a difficult two years since Paris, CYPHER finds himself in fnatic, ranked 28th in the world. He will debut with the team in the CCT Season 3 Europe Series 4, and at a Tier-1 level in the BLAST Bounty Season 2 qualifiers. He has big shoes to fill, with MATYS considered a bright spark in a lean few years for the black-and-orange organisation.
UKCSGO can confirm that, alongside CYPHER, fnatic trailed Sebastian “volt” Maloș for the same spot, but fnatic chose to go with CYPHER.
Fnatic, like CYPHER, failed to make the BLAST.tv Austin Major and overall had a fairly disappointing first half of the year. Their best result was a LAN win over ENCE at the Tipsport Conquest of Prague, which saw them go up 18 places in the VRS rankings.
The British rifler will be following in the footsteps of William “mezii” Merriman, who represented the organisation for over two years, competing at two Majors, and making the playoffs at the IEM Rio Major 2022.
CYPHER will be looking for some consistency at a storied name in esports. Can he bring this legendary organisation back to the level it once competed at?
UKCSGO has reached out to fnatic for a comment about the move, but they have yet to respond.
