Benjyfishy, aka Benjy Fish, the British Valorant player who switched from competitive Fortnite a year ago, is feeling confident ahead of a Last Chance Qualifier.
He joined Team Heretics last week in an announcement video that saw him fishing a Heretics jersey out of the water.
Benjyfishy was most recently playing in the lower-tier Valorant Challengers 2023 East Surge Split 2 with Enterprise Esports, where they finished second behind Acend.
Now he’s a tier-one VCT Valorant player.
Benjyfishy now has a chance to help Heretics reach Champions 2023 Los Angeles in August by progressing through the VCT 2023 EMEA Last Chance Qualifer (LCQ) today.
He joins Heretics at a time where the team finished eighth of ten teams in the VCT 2023 EMEA League regular season. Fnatic finished top of that with nine wins and zero losses, before Fnatic won VCT Valorant Masters Tokyo.
The news comes one year after Benjyfishy retired from Fortnite to focus on Valorant.
Benjyfishy talks in his first press conference as a VCT player: ‘A lot of people aren’t sure of my ability, and now I can prove myself’
When asked by Esports News UK’s Dom Sacco how it feels to have gone from a Challengers player to a VCT player, and what it’s like to be part of Team Heretics going into the LCQ, Benjyfishy answered: “It feels great, man, ever since I started playing Valorant a year ago now – my goal was always to make it here. So to have made it here so soon, it feels great, obviously. I’m very happy.
“Heretics didn’t have the best time in the split, but just to be given the opportunity to play here is amazing.”
Irish Valorant caster and host of this press conference, Mitchman, asked Benjyfishy if his time in Fortnite has given him less pressure moving into Valorant, or more.
“I think there’s a lot of people who aren’t really sure of my ability,” Benjyfishy said. “With the viewership of Challengers East, not many people actually know how I play. So now that I’m here, I think I’ll get to prove myself, which, for a lot of people would put a lot more pressure on them, but for me I think with my experience [playing in Fortnite] at the top level, I know what I have to do to be the best, and I’ll show it in LCQ.”
On integrating into Heretics, Benjyfishy said: “I think it’s been really good – we had more time than most teams to prepare for LCQ. I get along with the team really well and the atmosphere is good. Obviously they had a lot of issues during the split and the atmosphere wasn’t as good [then], but it’s a lovely working environment. We get along well with each other, so I’m really confident.”
“I think from me and the team, our expectations are to qualify. People don’t think we’ll qualify because of what happened in the split, but I think with the changes we made and with me being here, I can’t see us not qualifying.”
Benjyfishy
When asked about if he thinks he’ll be with Heretics for the long-term, Benjy responded: “I’d obviously like to think [I’ll be with Heretics next year], but you never know I guess! To be honest, I am confident we’re gonna do really good in LCQ.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so confident for an official before, obviously I don’t have that much experience but I’m the most confident I’ve ever been. I think we’re gonna smash LCQ and I think I’ll be here for next year.
“Also, at the last Champions event, I was there as a streamer, so to have a chance to compete there is unreal for me. I’m looking forward to it.”
In response to Koi player koldamenta saying Heretics won’t be strong enough to beat Koi today, Benjyfishy responded: “In my opinion, if KOI get more than double digits, it’s a loss for me. You don’t understand how confident I am. We’re gonna do good, trust me.”
And lastly, as a former Fortnite player, will we be seeing Benjyfishy striking any Fortnite emotes IRL?
“I was thinking about whipping out a little ‘take the L’ [dance]!” he smiled.
Team Heretics play against Koi in the VCT 2023 EMEA Last Chance Qualifier today from 4pm BST on the official Valorant EMEA esports Twitch channel.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
