Fnatic crashes out of the LEC Winter Split, a first in the org’s history

Not the LEC return Rekkles would’ve expected.

And just like that, three weeks of the LEC Winter Split regular season is now over and we move on to the group stage portion. Unfortunately, two teams have already left the Winter Split with that being Fnatic and Excel Esports.

Both teams invested heavily during the off-season with Excel bringing in two LEC veterans to shore up its ranks. Unfortunately, it didn’t end well for XL who ended the split at 1-8. But the most surprisingly inclusion was Fnatic, who many thought were going to run through the LEC Winter Split.

The return of Martin “Rekkles” Larsson was seen as a move that could bring Fnatic back to the top. That did not seem to be the case over the last three weeks with inconsistent performances from the boys in black and orange. They managed only two wins in their first six games, which were against XL and KOI. In their final week of matches, Fnatic went 0-3 against the likes of MAD Lions, Astralis, and SK Gaming.

While the loss against MAD was still somewhat negligible, it was their last two games against Astralis and SK where Fnatic really needed to stand up and be heard. Sadly, it was not their week as they bowed out in spectacular fashion against both teams. This also gave Astralis the chance to take that eighth and final spot into the group stage.

Synergy and miss-communication seemed to be Fnatic’s downfall this season. With the LEC Winter Split being the first region to start the 2023 season, it would appear that the team did not have enough time to fully understand one another’s playstyle. This is also the first time in the organisation’s history within the LEC that they failed to qualify to the playoff bracket of a regular season.

Rekkles issued a video apology fresh right after the loss against SK. He goes on to explain about how he has probably contributed more to the team’s failures, rather than its successes. And while he didn’t go into detail about Fnatic’s recent downfall, he did state that he will probably have time to stream more on the weekends seeing as how they will no longer be playing.

With the addition of the winter split and Fnatic’s early exit, it means that they will not be competing again until March, which is when the LEC Spring Split starts. As for now, the Winter Split still goes on with the group stage taking place on February 12 and 13.