Fnatic rose from the ashes in the 2023 Summer LEC Split, but after losing one of their key players, can they keep their momentum?
The 2024 LEC Season is upon us, as the Winter Split begins on January 13th, 2024! Team Heretics, GIANTX (the new team formed by the merging of Excel Esports and Giants), G2 Esports, Team Vitality and Fnatic have already locked in their rosters, with Team BDS and Rogue starting to finalize their teams as well. Of course, these are only the official roster locks, as all the rosters have been leaked or revealed weeks ago.
Fnatic only made one change to their roster, and even though their team was successful at the end of the 2023 season, they made an incredibly impactful change – hopefully, it pays off for black and orange squad.
Fnatic in 2023
Fnatic surprised everyone after re-signing the biggest name in the history of the organisation before the start of the 2023 season, Rekkles. The Swedish ADC played at the ERL level for 2022, but his performance wasn’t convincing, which didn’t change even after he returned to the LEC. Fnatic finished 9th in the Winter Split due to poor performances from basically the whole team, which forced management to make changes.
They signed Oscarinin instead of Wunder, swapped Worlds 2022 fan-favourite Rhuckz for Advienne, and signed Nightshare as a coach. Even though they had a rocky start with Oscarinin rivalling negative records in performance, they eventually managed to improve, making it to Groups, but finishing 8th.
After letting Rekkles go in favour of Korean ADC Noah and trading Advienne for Trymbi, the squad improved massively, finishing the Summer Regular season 2nd and the Playoffs 3rd. They went on to the Grand Finals of the LEC Season Finals to face their eternal rivals, G2 Esports, but due to Oscarinin’s injury and G2’s exceptional performance, they couldn’t beat the Kings of Europe.
Fnatic 2024 Roster
Top: Óscar “Oscarinin” Munoz Jiménez
Jungle: Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz
Mid: Marek “Humanoid” Brázda
ADC: Oh “Noah” Hyeon-taek
Support: Yoon “Jun” Se-jun
Is losing Trymbi worth it?
While Noah was a great addition to Fnatic’s roster before the start of the Summer Split, he had some shaky matches, especially after hyper-carries like Jinx, Aphelios and Zeri were nerfed out of the meta. The Korean player found his footing towards the end of the year, but at Worlds, he was outclassed – just like the rest of Fnatic.
That includes Trymbi, but the Spanish-Polish player was the most consistent and flashy player on the black-and-orange squad in Summer. His first match under the banner of Fnatic was incredibly memorable, as he made some great plays around the Rift with Thresh. While he wasn’t perfect, he is a great support – not just for Noah, but for the rest of the team as well, enabling Razork and Humanoid, as well as relieving Oscarinin when he needed it.
Nevertheless, Fnatic decided to part ways with Trymbi, who didn’t manage to find a new team for 2024. Some rumours claim that he was a bit difficult to work with in- and outside of the game, but his energy and shotcalling will be missed by both fans – and I presume the team as well.
Will Jun save Fnatic?
Trymbi was replaced with the former support of Kwangdong Freecs, Jun. The 23-year-old started in DRX Challengers back in 2020, but only managed to win the LCK Academy Series/Challenger League twice. He subbed in for BeryL in the LCK 2022 Spring Series but wasn’t better than the now 2-times Worlds winner. He played for KDF for the entirety of 2023, but wasn’t too successful with the team, failing to make Playoffs in either split.
However, he is a very unique player, that prefers damage dealers such as Heimerdinger, Ashe and Karma, and had the highest damage% out of all LCK supports in the Summer Regular Season – the only issue is that he won 1 out of 9 games played with Karma, who was his most played champion. The biggest reason for Fnatic to sign Jun was to create an all-Korean botlane, where the communication difficulties Noah had (and worked on immensely) don’t become a hindrance to the team.
Fnatic 2024 Predictions
Even though Trymbi was a great player, Fnatic didn’t become much weaker than before. They still have a great topside thanks to Humanoid, Razork and Oscarinin, and depending on the meta, Noah can shine again. The two Korean players are also more likely to find synergy in the botlane, and the Season 14 changes might be extremely beneficial to Noah, who can expand his champion pool by the time the LEC Winter Split starts at the beginning of January.
Fnatic should remain a contender team, although maybe not a top 3 squad at first – we’ll see how the new botlane works out in a few weeks!
