London-based esports organisation Fnatic have quarantined their League of Legends LEC team after a player and coach contracted the Covid-19 coronavirus.
Support player Hylissang and assistant coach Tolki tested positive last week, reports Dot Esports’ Jacob Wolf.
While Fnatic’s HQ is in London, their LEC team are based out of Berlin – as is the LEC studio.
Fnatic said in a statement: “Last week, two people at the Fnatic Berlin facility tested positive for COVID-19. They have since been in quarantine and are showing only mild symptoms.
“In line with Fnatic internal policies, we asked everyone that has been exposed to our positive cases to be retested and work remotely.
“We are aiming to return to the Berlin facility as soon as we can. We’re confident that all our members will soon be fully recovered and ready for an amazing playoffs run.”
Hylissang told Dot Esports: “It’s unfortunate I got infected and couldn’t show up for the games that might have mattered.
“Happy that we went 2-0 [the] previous week even though I was feeling bad. Hope I get better for the playoffs.”
Last Sunday, Fnatic finished the LEC Spring 2021 Season in fifth place following three defeats during the final LEC super week of the season.
After the match on Sunday, Fnatic founder Sam Mathews hinted that ‘there’s some stuff behind the scenes which we’ve chosen to keep private which has disrupted our normal routine’, which now seems to be the player and coach contracting covid-19.
Riot Games recently announced LEC teams will be returning to the studio for the spring playoffs – it’s not clear if or how this latest development may change things.
Earlier this year, in the North American LCS, Dignitas and CLG players tested positive for Covid-19, and Team Liquid moved their LCS team out of their Alienware Training Facility after a member of staff contracted the coronavirus.
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.
