London-based esports organisation Fnatic have promoted academy bot-laner Louis ‘Bean’ Schmitz to their League of Legends first team.
The change has been made just hours before they play their first League of Legends 2021 World Championship (Worlds) group stage game against Korean side Hanwha Life Esports (HLE) on October 11th at 2pm BST.
German youngster Bean steps in for fellow countryman ADC Elias ‘Upset’ Lipp, who has had to return home at the last minute ‘following an urgent family matter’, Fnatic announced on their official Twitter page:
Fnatic said: “Bean has been preparing with our team the last few weeks in Reykjavik (Iceland, where Worlds 2021 is taking place), and will make his debut as a starter in our Worlds opener vs HLE.”
Bean is a solid ADC and has had an impressive year with Fnatic’s League of Legends academy side, Fnatic Rising.
Since joining in December 2020 after Fnatic’s former main ADC Rekkles left for G2 and British Fnatic Rising ADC xMatty left for Karmine Corp in France, Bean has reached two NLC finals (Spring 2021 and NLC Summer 2021) and an EU Masters final (in Summer 2021).
The NLC is the Northern League of Legends Championship, the European Regional League for teams in the UK and Northern Europe. Next year, Fnatic Rising will be playing in the Spanish Superliga instead, with Astralis’ academy side joining the NLC.
Bean is another emergency sub at Worlds, following PK, who stepped in for BYG mid-laner Maoan the other day after Maoan was suspended for leaking inside information for betting purposes.
Upset has since added these tweets, explaining his situation after some unproven and harmful rumours emerged that the ‘urgent family matter’ may have been a cover-up for something else:
thank you for the support and I will continue my break from social media and hopefully the team bounces back ❤️
— Elias Lipp (@FNC_Upset) October 13, 2021
Fnatic face PSG Talon, Royal Never Give Up and Hanwha Life Esports in the Worlds 2021 group stage. They are currently 0-2 as of the morning of October 13th 2021.
Last year, Fnatic reached the Worlds quarter finals, where they were knocked out by Top Esports 3-2.
“We urge the community to focus on the incoming competition where we will do our utmost to represent Europe in our ninth Worlds tournament.”
Fnatic
Worlds 2021 is Fnatic’s ninth World’s tournament, and they have been hungry for another trophy after winning the first Worlds back in 2011.
Fnatic also reached the LEC Summer 2021 final back in August, falling 3-1 to Mad Lions.
There are a few other UK links at Worlds 2021. Mad Lions coach Mac and Rogue coach fredy122 are British, while Team Liquid top-laner Alphari is from Wales, and he’s confident Liquid can reach the Worlds 2021 quarter finals.
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.
