Fnatic’s fan-favorite Valorant coach Jacob “mini” Harris has returned to the team for the 2024 VCT season, but not in the role you’d expect.
Following the end of Valorant Champions 2023 where Fnatic finished after a dominant year, Fnatic made the shocking announcement that their head coach mini was stepping down from the roster.
In place of mini, Fnatic picked up ex-GenG coach Chris “Elmapuddy” Tebbit, with whom they won Red Bull Home Ground #4, continuing the team’s roll of trophy wins in 2023.
And as the 2023/24 off-season winds down in anticipation of the next season, mini is coming back on to Fnatic’s Valorant team, but not as head coach this time.
As announced by Fnatic, they welcomed back mini as their new assistant coach for the 2024 season.
“Happy to continue working with the boys as their new Ass Coach!” mini tweeted in response to Fnatic’s announcement.
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He further explained his new role as assistant coach, “I would like to make it clear that I am the assistant coach and that my job will be to support+enable Elamapuddy and his vision.”
When asked if he will be present with the team in international LANs, mini said he would be working remotely for the splits but would be joining the squad for international events like Masters and Champions if they qualify.
When mini stepped down from his role in September, he said his leaving was so he could “explore options for a better work-life balance”.
With the new announcement, Fnatic’s coaching staff is made of both Elmapuddy and mini, a formidable backing duo to the Masters and LOCK//IN winning roster they retained from 2023.