Boom Esports Valorant team have announced that they would be parting ways with Thomas “Cud” Alfiantino, who was signed in January 2023.
In January 2023, Boom Esports announced Cud as their sixth player for their Valorant team as second duelist/all-rounder and an alternative to Rizkie “Berserx” Adla Kusuma who was demoted after receiving criticism during the India Invitational 2022. At just 17 years old, Cud became the youngest player on the Boom Esports team.
Cud’s arrival into Boom Esports was met with enthusiasm by Boom Esports supporters. Most of his fans have witnessed his potential during his stint at the Bigetron Arctic throughout 2022 season, where he quickly became their key player just a month after being introduced to the team. In addition, the re-signing of Fikri “Famouz” Zaki, his former Morph teammate, raised their expectations that the two would relive their glory days at Boom.
Cud, however, seemed to struggle with consistency during Split 1 ID as the tournament continued. Although he was named as one of the top Killjoy players in the league, there were moments which showed that he was unfit for Boom Esports’ strategies. Boom Esports eventually lost against Bigetron Arctic in the grand final of Split 1 by 3-2.
This situation prompted coach Ji “Meow” Dong-jun to reinstate Berserx as a starter and moved Cud in the backseat for Split 2. The decision was fruitful. Boom Esports won Split 2 and advanced to the Ascension in Bangkok, Thailand. Berserx was lauded by both analysts and Meow, who deemed him as the most improved player in his team.
As of now, Cud’s management has not revealed any more information on his next move for the next season. With the recent trend of young Indonesian Valorant players playing overseas, such as Jason “F0rsaken” Susanto at Paper Rex (Singapore) and Cahya “Monyet” Nugraha at Global Esports (India), a wonderkid like Cud might be gaining attention from teams outside of Indonesia as well.
