Fnatic confirm roster changes ahead of 2023 LEC Spring Split

It’s been a long time since we have seen Fnatic be dominant in League of Legends. The past 2,5 years have been filled with drama, controversy, and bad results per Fnatic standards. The moves the front office is making might be a bandaid fix. But it’s the best Fnatic can do a week before the 2023 LEC Spring Split starts.

Fnatic 2022 offseason recap

If you have followed competitive League of Legends at any point after Covid, you would know about Fnatic’s fall from grace. Despite fielding rosters composed of talented players which are regarded highly among their peers, the team has barely seen success. For some teams, making the World Championship might be a major stepping stone. But that’s just not how Fnatic works. The brand’s storied past makes the large fan base demanding. That’s what makes wearing the black and orange jerseys so special across all esports. For those of you that aren’t informed, here’s a quick TLDR on their descent to the bottom of the standings.

Fnatic after Covid

The 2022 World Championship ended in a disaster for Fnatic. The team was up 2-0 on TOP Esports in the quarter-finals before the infamous Sjokz monologue. They ended up being on the receiving end of a reverse sweep that left the team in tatters. The face of Fnatic, bot laner Rekkles, left for their arch rival in G2 Esports. Mid laner Nemesis was replaced by Nisqy, who came off an MVP-worthy season with Cloud9 in the LCS. Top laner Bwipo role swapped to jungle and a rookie top laner named Adam was tabbed as his replacement.

The roster had an up and down year, before ultimately disintegrating during the 2021 World Championship. Bot laner Upset, who replaced Rekkles, left the team 2 days before their first match at the competition without giving the team an explanation. Head coach at the time, Yamato Cannon, reportedly knew the reasoning for this drastic move. But he didn’t want to share it with the team to preserve Upset’s privacy. Fnatic acquired a completely new top side in Humanoid, Razork and Wunder. Deciding to only keep the bot lane for the 2022 season.

The failure of 2022 Fnatic

Despite having a more talented roster on paper, 2022 Fnatic never got off. The only time this team looked decent was the last 4 weeks of competition in summer. And that was mostly due to Upset’s individual brilliance. His performance passed the eye test, and the numbers backed it up. He dragged his team to the 2022 World Championship. Only to fall victim to Covid days before the team’s departure to the USA. As a result, Fnatic played with substitutes for the first two games. They won both games looking a lot more fluid than at any point during these two years. This created an even major rift after the eventual collapse in the group stage, setting up for an interesting offseason.

Fnatic replace Upset with Rekkles

Head coach Yamato was the first domino to fall. Two years of underperforming teams meant that his seat was hotter than ever. He didn’t re-sign with the team after his contract ran out. Gonçalo “Crusher” Pinto Brandão was promoted after Fnatic TQ, Fnatic’s academy roster, disbanded. The Portuguese coach was one of the most wanted coaches in the ERL scene. He won the Spanish Superliga with UCAM a few years ago. He also led FNC Academy to the promised land in the Spring of 2022. But that same roster imploded months later. This led to the disband and the rookie head coach joining Fnatic in his first LEC split this spring. 

According to multiple overlapping reports, Fnatic’s top side in Wunder and Humanoid wanted to do nothing with Upset and Hylissang after how 2022 went. Hyllisang himself wanted a change of scenery after his performance during the 2022 Summer Split and World Championship. Academy support Rhuckz was promoted to the main roster as the starting support. He subbed in at the 2022 World Championship when Upset and Hylissang got Covid. Apparently, two games at the play-in stage was enough to convince FNC management and their top side that he is the right pick. 

Free agents ducking Fnatic offers

But notable free agent bot laners didn’t seem to agree with this notion. Hans Sama, who was the best available bot laner despite a down year with Team Liquid, wouldn’t hear Fnatic’s offer. SK Gaming bot laner Exakick chose comfort over money, deciding to team up with his ERL support Doss. Bot laner Carzzy, who had a down year during the implosion of the 2022 Vitality roster, also didn’t want to join Fnatic. This prevented a Upset- Crazy swap between Fnatic and Vitality.

This then had a ripple down effect on the entire league, with Vitality giving Neon the starting ADC spot. In the meantime, Carzzy was traded to the MAD Lions for support Kaiser. This led to Upset being benched by Fnatic and sitting out untill the 2023 LEC Spring Split. With former G2 bot laners Flakked and Rekkles being the only two options remaining, Fnatic chose to bring back Rekkles for a third time. 

Fnatic 2023 Winter Split debacle

The roster composed of top laner Wunder, jungler Razork, mid laner Humanoid, bot laner Rekkles and support Rhuckz came into 2023 with high hopes. But those hopes were crushed long before the last three games of the winter split, which were all sub 30 minute losses for Fnatic. The team looked like it was held by duct tape throughout these last 2 months. The only 2 games they won were against Excel and KOI. Excel had an even worse performance, winning only one game the entire split. KOI had the early game lead, but picked Jhin and gave up Maokai, resulting in a bad team composition. Jungler Razork still had to steal the Baron buff, to give Fnatic their second win.

Looking at the statistics, it was evident what Fnatic’s issues were. When the entire world is abusing the Lucian/ Nami meta and countering it with Zeri/ Lulu, Fnatic tried to be different. Banning Lucian and Caitlyn in more than half of their games, meant that their bot laner simply could not compete with others. G2 formed a goliath reuniting Hans Sama and Mikyx from their Misfits days.

Exakick and Doss were the talk of the league, but another young bot lane in Crownie and Labrov also took their team to the playoffs. Astralis is not a perennial bottom feeder this split because Kobbe and Jeonghoon developed synergy. Having a bot lane that can’t matchup creates a lot more holes across the map. Rekkles played Zeri only once, never touched Lucian or Caitlyn and didn’t give Aphelios a shot at all. Fnatic’s bot lane was down over a 1000 gold on average at the 15 minute mark. 

Dardo as esports general manager

With expectations being so high, and results being nonexistent, there’s plenty of blame to go around. The rest of the map tried filling in the holes their bot lane left, but it only dragged the team down further. At what point do these 2,5 years of disappointments become the norm and not an anomaly? As always, it starts from the top. And in Fnatic’s case, Javier “Dardo” Zafra is head of operations for Fnatic’s League of Legends department. Here is his track record as an executive in esports:

Team Origen- Before Dardo, Team Origen joined the EU LCS in 2015, having a decent season which led to them qualifying to the World Championship and making it all the way to the semifinals. After Dardo joined Origen in 2016, they finished 9th, missing the playoffs and the World Championship. The following year they went 0-13 in spring, finished 9th place in summer before the team disbanded before 2017 ended.

Team H2K and Origen disband after Dardo

Team H2K: In 2016, Team H2K managed to advance to the semifinals at the World Championship, before losing to the eventual champions. In 2017, they were a respectable squad, finishing 5th place in spring and 4th place in the summer of EULCS. After Dardo joined the team in 2018, the team finished in 6th place during the spring split, before finishing 10th and last with a 2-18 record during the summer split. The team disbanded shortly after.

Fnatic- Before Dardo joined Fnatic and before G2 stole Caps away from them, Fnatic was the brand to beat in Europe. In 2018 Fnatic collected two LEC titles and reached the Grand Finals at the World Championship. They eventually lost to the infamous Invictus Gaming squad featuring Jackeylove and Rookie. The following year in 2019, Fnatic was battling the best version of G2 up to that point. Despite losing Caps to their arch rivals, the team still put up great performances during the LEC Finals, pushing them to 5 games. Fnatic also made the quarter-finals at that year’s World Championship.

Dardo’s time with Fnatic

With Dardo joining Fnatic in 2020, he inherited a team and organization primed for winning. The 2020 version of Fnatic finished second in both the spring and summer split, falling only to G2. They again reached the quarter-finals at the World Championship, before suffering a major meltdown. The next two years in Fnatic’s history were highlighted by miracle runs on the back of their star players, which ultimately led to disappointing performances on the biggest stage. And they kicked off 2023 with the worst record in regular season history, with the team missing the playoffs for the first time. We are not here to point fingers, but the trend is obvious.

Former players sound off

Outside of the numbers, former players have also voiced their experiences with the new Fnatic management and how it has created a toxic culture. Caps left Fnatic back in late  2018 saying that there were “problems” with the team/organization. Nemesis joined in 2019 to replace him, before going completely silent the following year, prompting him to leave and quit playing competitively. After moving to Korea to kickstart his streaming career. he claimed he was treated super badly, to the point where some ppl in the org would make him feel worthless in between series. He also mentioned that he would rather retire than join a bad team because a losing culture starts at the top.

Rekkles left for a second time, but the jungle shake-up was even more telling. Jungler Selfmade was ousted in favor of top laner Bwipo who role-swapped to take his spot, and in the first stream under the Vitality banner, Selfmade stated he’s in a happier place now regardless of the outcome and results. Then came the debacle where now former Fnatic head coach Crusher said in the Legends of Action video that he was promised the head coaching position last year, when he was still coaching the Academy team. Other notable and respected players within the community and Fnatic legends like YoungBuck, Soaz, and Broxah have stated that issues within the organization have forced them out of their positions/ roles with the team in recent years.

Fnatic roster for 2023 LEC Spring Split

With all this in mind, Fnatic is heading into the 2023 LEC Spring Split with a revamped roster. As mentioned previously, coach Crusher has been laid off. For the upcoming split, he will be replaced by Nightshare. The former Immortals coach reportedly also had talks with Excel this offseason. Former G2 head coach during their glory days, Fabian “GrabbZ” Lohmann was also considered by Fnatic last week but he declined. He is just another example in a long line of personalities in the community who are unveiling to come close to Fnatic. 

Considering that the ERLs are in mid season, the only roster upgrades Fnatic could do are free agents and academy promotions. Despite having bot laner Upset still on payroll, Fnatic decided to keep Rekkles as their bot laner. Instead of Rhuckz, former Excel support Adveienne will be their new starting support. He is not the only Fnatic Academy player being promoted to the main lineup, with top laner Oscarinin replacing Wunder. The young prodigy might be talented but he is joining a dysfunctional organization, and will certainly need time to adjust to the pace of the game. And with less than a week of practice before the 2023 Spring Split starts, only a miracle could save this season for Fnatic.