Fnatic has announced their starting roster for the LEC Spring Split 2023. In a blog post on their website, they announced the changes and addressed fan concerns.
This follows an extremely lackluster Winter Split, in which the star-studded team placed ninth, failing to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in organizational history.
In response, Fnatic moved from top laner Martin “Wunder” Nordahl Hansen to Óscar Muñoz “Oscarinin” Jiménez. Additionally, they changed support Rúben “Rhuckz” Barbosa to Henk “Advienne” Reijenga. Both players were promoted from Fnatic TQ, the organization’s academy team.
fnatic said: “The duo are incredibly talented young people who have showcased their skills time and time again in the ERLs, and their commitment and focus aligns greatly with how the organization has evolved this spring.
“Oscarinin brings a commanding top lane presence worthy of taking on the best in the LEC. Anyone who has listened to Fnatic TQ will understand just how capable he is.
“Advienne brings a mature, pragmatic and vocal presence to the team, using her previous experience with XL to deliver impressive performances and unite the team.
“Most importantly, we believe that both players fit perfectly into the chemistry of the current squads and share the same team-wide mentality, an important factor that we are pursuing this offseason.”
Fnatic also made personnel changes, bringing in Tomáš “Nightshare” Kněžínek as their new head coach. Nightshare is well known in the Czech LoL scene and has experience with Immortals in LCS.
fnatic said: Tomáš brings a wealth of experience from many walks of life, as a player, assistant coach and head coach.
“A hugely emotionally intelligent individual, Nightshare instantly connected to the group from the very start and was instrumental in getting every player on the same page and setting the right goals for the team at the moment. coming.”
The announcement talked about the difficulties the team faced and why these changes were made.
Fnatic added: “As for Spring, we also took a deep look at internal team structure, leadership and cohesion to see what went wrong and where we can build and improve.
“One thing was clear: we weren’t ready for winter. Lack of preparation and few established routines meant increased pressure on stage, with a clash of different goals and player profiles making it difficult to achieve meaningful improvement.”
In closing they said: “Go warmly welcome our new members and as always: Once Fnatic, #ALWAYSFNATIC.”