In what was the worst kept secret in all of esports, Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau will become Fnatic’s new jungler for the Summer Split. Along with this role swap comes with Fnatic parting ways with previous jungler Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek.
Jungle will be the third role Bwipo has played professionall, as he has previously been both a top laner and an ADC (Photo by Michal Konkol/Riot Games)
“I think, in general, playing League of Legends is something that’s pretty universal,” Bwipo explains in a video released by Fnatic. “I don’t think playing one specific role takes so much more effort than another. At least, at a competitive level. I think that all competitive players should have some idea, if not be capable of playing, every other role at a very high level.”
A role swap is not something new for Bwipo, as the Belgian player had a brief stint as the ADC for Fnatic during the 2018 EU LCS Summer Split. However, Bwipo has spent the bulk of his professional playing career as a top laner and it is where he has undoubtedly found the most success.
“Having someone like Bwipo on the team is such a blessing,” coach Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi says. “He could write 15 books about League of Legends with how much knowledge he has and, naturally, he is also a person who has role swapped in the past.”
With this move, Fnatic has officially moved on from Selfmade after the jungler has been with the team since November 2019. In that span, the Polish player has become one of the top junglers in Europe with particularly strong play on carry-heavy junglers. If rumors are to be believed, Selfmade will find himself wearing a Team Vitality jersey next split.
Fnatic has now made a huge change to their roster by shifting Bwipo to the jungle and bringing in teenage stud Adam “Adam” Maanane to replace him in top lane. Fnatic is coming off one of their worst splits in recent memory, going just 9-9 in the Spring season before being swept by Schalke 04 in the playoffs.
This means that only Bwipo and Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov remain from the Fnatic team that went to 2020 Worlds. And with MAD Lions, Rogue and G2 still competing for the top spot in the LEC, it may be a split of rebuilding for Fnatic.
