Fnatic 2023 LEC Spring Announcement

As we rapidly approach the start of LEC Spring 2023, we wanted to provide some much-anticipated updates regarding the squad going forward. Over the last few weeks, everyone at Fnatic has been working tirelessly to resolve performance issues within the squad, and make the necessary changes to push the team into a healthier and more productive direction for spring. We’re excited to finally introduce these updates to you:

Let’s start with the starting lineup - both Óscar Muñoz ‘Oscarinin’ Jiménez and Henk ‘Advienne’ Reijenga from our Fnatic TQ academy squad have been promoted, serving as our new top-laner and support respectively. The pair are incredibly talented young individuals who have highlighted their skills time and time again in the ERL’s, and their commitment and focus massively align with the organizations going forward this spring. Oscarinin brings a dominant, carry-style top lane presence, worthy of going toe to toe with the LEC’s best. Anyone who’s tuned into Fnatic TQ will understand just how capable he is. Advienne brings a mature, level-headed, and vocal presence to the team, using his previous experience with XL to put up impressive performances and bring the team together. Importantly, we believe both players are perfect fits into the current teams' chemistry and share the same mindset of the entire squad - an important factor we pursued in the offseason.

Joining them for Spring is our new head coach, Tomáš ‘Nightshare’ Kněžínek, a known powerhouse in the Czech League of Legends scene, who brings experience from the LCS with Immortals to the table. Having worked with multiple Czech players in his career including our very own Humanoid, Tomáš brings a wealth of experience from multiple backgrounds, as a player, assistant coach, and head coach. An extremely emotionally intelligent individual, Nightshare has instantly connected with the group from the beginning and has been a decisive influence in bringing each player onto the same page, and defining the right goals for the squad going forward.

Heading into Spring, we’ve also thoroughly examined the inner teams' structure, leadership, and cohesion to analyze what went wrong, and where we can build upon and improve. One thing was clear - we were not ready for Winter. Lack of preparation and few established routines meant increased pressure on stage, with a clash of each player’s varying goals & profiles complicating meaningful improvement. We’ve already made significant changes, with the team together already, bonding and scrimming, giving them as much time before the split starts as possible. We’re in a better position, but with significant steps to be made further to learn and improve. This has been a limited off-season window, which meant it was extremely important for us to find and bring new individuals on board that are both motivated and aligned for our goals going forward. Going forward, we will take whatever steps necessary, which means learning from our past mistakes, to bring Fnatic back to the performance standards we hold ourselves to, winning the LEC and content ending for the world championship. We can’t promise this will be an easy journey, but we’re confident it will happen.

We want to thank you for your ongoing patience and support this offseason. We’re sure you’ve got more questions around both Winter and the offseason, so we want to provide a transparent platform for you to ask and to be answered. We’ll be hosting a live AMA at 7PM CET tonight at twitch.tv/fnatic with our PG team led by Patrik Sättermon and Stuart Brown taking your questions, with Nightshare also in attendance. We’re as excited to get back to the Rift as you are, working hard to rectify the mistakes made in Winter, and provide a split much more worthy of your ever-passionate support.

Go give a huge warm welcome to our newest joiners, and as always: Once Fnatic, #ALWAYSFNATIC.