Fnatic LEC team changes announced ahead of 2023 Spring Split

The Fnatic LEC team has seen some tweaks, with a couple of new players and a coach being added to the first team line-up.

Fnatic’s League of Legends team had a disappointing regular season in the LEC Winter 2023, finishing ninth and failing to progress to the group stage.

This prompted apologies from players and staff, with Fnatic founder and CEO Sam Mathews saying changes would be made. And now they’ve been announced.

Spanish top-laner Óscar Muñoz ‘Oscarinin’ Jiménez and Dutch support player Henk ‘Advienne’ Reijenga have been promoted to the Fnatic LEC team from the organisation’s Fnatic TQ academy squad.

These join jungler Razork, mid-laner Humanoid and ADC Rekkles, who returned to Fnatic in December 2022.

This means top-laner Wunder has been benched, while support player Rhuckz has moved back to the academy team. Fnatic’s other ADC, Upset, has joined Vitality, while coach Crusher and esports psychologist Sens have also left Fnatic.

Fnatic have also announced their new LEC head coach as Czech’s Tomáš ‘Nightshare’ Kněžínek, a known powerhouse in the Czech League of Legends scene, who has previously worked with LCS side Immortals in North America.

The move marks a return to the LEC for Advienne, who previously played in the competition with fellow UK-headquartered esports organisation Excel Esports, before Advienne was replaced by Mikyx last year.

Fnatic described the two new first team players as ‘incredibly talented young individuals’ and the coach as ‘an extremely emotionally intelligent individual’.

‘We were not ready for the Winter split’ – Fnatic LEC team changes follow internal analysis

Fnatic said they ‘thoroughly examined the inner teams’ structure, leadership, and cohesion to analyse what went wrong [in the Winter split], and where we can build upon and improve’.

“One thing was clear – we were not ready for Winter,” the org said of the Fnatic LEC team in this spring 2023 LEC announcement post on the Fnatic website.

“Lack of preparation and few established routines meant increased pressure on stage, with a clash of each player’s varying goals and profiles complicating meaningful improvement.

“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 contending for the world championship. We can’t promise this will be an easy journey, but we’re confident it will happen.”

Outgoing coach Crusher said he was disappointed with the split and that there were ‘too many problems with the team chemistry and organisational structure’.

Fnatic also held a live AMA (ask me anything) stream on Twitch last night about the changes.

In other Fnatic news, the org will also soon be changing offices in London. Their last Valorant watch party at their current office takes place there today and tomorrow.

Dom Sacco

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.