Fnatic’s New Roster Revealed
Few teams were hit harder by the League of Legends offseason than Fnatic.
The team with the legendary lineup that dominated Europe for years now looks completely different. Long-time mid laner and captain Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martínez left the team to create his own organization, Origen.
Today, Fnatic revealed the roster they’ll use to rise from the ashes. However, only one member from last year’s squad that reached the Riot World Championship remains.
Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim is staying with the team, but top laner Paul “SoaZ” Boyer is moving on.
So, where does one of esports’ oldest organizations turn to replace a departing lineup of legends? Korea, mostly.
Kim hand-picked Pierre “Steelback” Medjaldi to man the marksman position, creating an all-French bottom lane. Fnatic’s big offseason acquisition is mid laner Fabian “Febiven” Diepstraten, who was acquired from H2k-Gaming, an up-and-coming player who dominated the challenger scene for the past year.
The top and jungle spots will be filled with young and untested Koreans. Kim “Reign Over” Ui-jin takes the jungle role, coming with a history as a player on pro team Incredible Miracle.
Manning the top lane is Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon, a substitute for Samsung who never had a shot to make it to the big leagues.
“We understand that these moves will raise questions,” Fnatic said, “however, we are confident that with time this team will compete at the highest level.”
Adding largely untested Koreans seems to be a trend during this League of Legends offseason. So far, it hasn’t worked for Western teams. Squads like Dignitas have struggled to integrate their Korean talents into a cohesive team.
“The two share an incredible amount of potential and after extensive discussions, we learned of their drive and passion to succeed,” Fnatic said. “We feel both of these players, although fairly unknown, will surprise a lot of people. With YellowStar’s veteran leadership and this team’s unrivaled motivation to succeed, we believe they can live up to the winning tradition here at Fnatic.”
The last season of the LCS was the first in four years that Fnatic did not win. Maintaining that tradition is quite a lofty goal for a team of unproven and untested players, but until we see the team in action, there’s always, as Fnatic says, potential.
Image via Fnatic