By Order Of Fnatic For LEC Versus ft. GrabbZ

LEC Versus kicks off on Saturday, January 17. Among the twelve teams competing this split, none carries more weight of expectation—and more years of frustration—than Fnatic. Eight years without a title. A disappointing Worlds 2025 campaign. Fnatic is a dynasty that has seen better days. The old guard remains—battle-tested, scarred, but still dangerous. Around them, new faces have been recruited into the family business.

Hotspawn sat down with Fabian “GrabbZ” Lohmann, Fnatic’s head coach, to discuss the eventful offseason, the Upset-Razork dynamic, the acquisition of Vladi, the newcomers and why he believes this team can compete for titles.

Already Broken

The decision to rebuild wasn’t difficult. What was difficult was identifying exactly what needed to change. Unlike most struggling teams, Fnatic couldn’t point to one obvious weak link.

“We wanted to make changes. I think no one would have wanted to go into next year with the same roster. We had too many interpersonal issues, too many relationships that were strained. And personally, I work best with people who are open to share their opinions—we did not have enough of this in the team. So I was looking to change that for sure.”

The complexity lay in the configuration. “Normally in a roster, you have a clear idea of who are the worst players, and you change them. Here, you couldn’t really put the blame on one person. It’s just the configuration of players. So everybody was up for debate. Everybody was changeable, and they knew that.“

Only Mikyx decided early that he was out—his own choice. The departure of Poby was more nuanced: no drama, just incompatibility. “It looks weird because we kept him for only one split right? But the way we handled some situations that arised showed we are fundamentally different in how we want to work. GrabbZ and Poby are just not the best fit, for no fault of either. Nothing too deep.”

Family Meeting – “It doesn’t feel like A against B anymore—it feels like a team”

The elephant in the room: the Upset-Razork dynamic. By the end of Summer and Worlds, their relationship—while never personal—had become frozen on the Rift. The easy fix would have been to remove one of them. Fnatic considered it.

“The relationship wasn’t personal—they like each other as people. But how they saw the game felt very stagnant and broken. The easy change would have been: ‘Okay, let’s make one roster with Razork, one roster with Upset, and see what’s better.’ But looking at the market, both are really hard to replace because both are really good.”

GrabbZ took a different approach. He analyzed why the conflict kept happening and came to a conclusion that changed everything.

“I told Fnatic—and kind of put my neck on the line—that I strongly believe it was a situation of two players being vocal and the rest being passengers. So obviously every situation felt like a battle between Upset and Razork, because they were the only ones sharing opinions. I told Fnatic that if we have two or three more players who also bring their ideas in, it won’t be Upset against Razork anymore. It will be: ‘Okay, what is the best play actually?’”

The gamble paid off—at least in the early stages. “So far in this team, that’s exactly what happened. It’s so much easier now for both Upset and Razork to share their opinion when you have two or three other players in the room who bring their own perspective. It doesn’t feel like A against B anymore. It feels like a team trying to find the best way possible. And again, it’s still the honeymoon phase, right? I’ve been in the scene for too long to say now everything is fixed and everything’s perfect. But it’s a very promising start.”

A Seat at the Table

For years, one criticism has followed Upset: that he polarizes the game too heavily toward him. GrabbZ has a different read on the situation.

Does he talk a lot? Yes. Does he give a lot of plans? Yes. Does he want attention? Yes. But if your team is too weak on the other positions to match that, you will go bot lane. That’s how it goes. Put yourself in Razork’s shoes: on one side you have vague communication, ‘maybe something happens here.’ On the other side, Upset says ‘If you come in two waves, I can stack minions and we dive them.’ Where do you go?

The issue, GrabbZ argues, was never that Upset demanded resources—it’s that no one else was providing clear alternatives. With Vladi for example offering his own plans and timings, the dynamic has shifted. “Upset doesn’t want to shotcall—no ADC wants to shotcall, they want to focus on mechanics,” the coach assured. “He appreciates now that the whole gameplay doesn’t rely on him. Before it was Razork and Upset. Now there’s balance.“

The Wildcard – “What has been said about Vladi was so crazy exaggerated”

Vladi was the most coveted free agent of the offseason—and among the most controversial. After a tumultuous year at KC that ended with mutual separation, questions swirled around the young mid laner’s attitude and coachability. Fnatic decided the talent was worth the risk and paid a buyout to secure the midlaner.

Of course you get a lot of opinions about him. So it was more a question of: how high-risk do we want to play it? And I think having the option of getting the next best European super talent means you should go high risk.

One month in, GrabbZ’s assessment is clear: the concerns were overblown.

I think what has been said about him was so crazy exaggerated. The only thing I can say is that he’s really annoying in a way—he’s young and he’s a memer. If he says ‘six seven’ one more time, I think I will hurt myself. But that’s our biggest complaint: he’s a bit of a class clown.

More importantly, Vladi came prepared. “He was very honest in our first talk. What he felt was really important is open communication—if something he does isn’t wanted, just tell him. I think it was just a bit muddy at KC from both sides. I’m not going to say KC was entirely the issue. But he was really reflective and gave me clear ideas of how to handle him if we work together.”

New Blood

The most surprising aspect of Fnatic’s rebuild: betting on two unexpected rookies in Empyros and Lospa. For an organization desperate to return to the very top, adding unproven talent seemed counterintuitive. But GrabbZ saw something others might’ve missed.

People think that rookies won’t speak up among veterans. But after initial talks with multiple toplaners, Empyros was the one who talked the most humanely. I had an actual conversation with him. I gave him homework, asked him to explain sequences. We had disagreements and he said ‘No, no, I see it this way.’ For me, it wasn’t about being correct—it was him being comfortable speaking against me as a rookie. That’s a good sign.

Empyros brings more than just communication. “He’s a very solid laner, someone eager to play carries like Fiora. And he can explain why he’s playing sidelane the way he does—he’s consciously making decisions. That’s rare for ERL players. Many just mindlessly push sidelane and see what happens. With him, there’s thought behind every decision,” he added. “It helps Empyros that he’s friends with Vladi. Vladi is one of the ‘senior’ players—he won a split at least. So Empyros can just tell him clearly what he wants, no barrier, no worry.”

Our newest addition to the Black & Orange 🧡

Hear from @EmpyrosGRE as he talks about joining the team and his ambitions for 2026! pic.twitter.com/ai8WCSbNHE

— FNATIC (@FNATIC) December 15, 2025

Lospa offers a different profile entirely—one that comes with both upside and risk.

Lospa is a bit of a crazier player than I normally work with. He’s a bit of a Hylissang in a way. I can promise you now: there will be crazy plays, both ways—crazy good and crazy bad. But I’d rather have that than the many supports in Europe who just exist and have a good score. Lospa understands where he has the most impact. He looks for flanks aggressively, he’s a playmaker, he takes risks.

It also helps that Lospa speaks conversational English—a rarity for Korean imports. “You can actually talk to him. And if you follow his career, the willingness he has to become good and to sacrifice… he knows what he wants. He has this bite to be a pro player, this passion. That’s rare.”

The goal was to add at least one more voice to the room. Fnatic got five. “Right now we have five players who want to bring their ideas in. It’s very loud in the room. It’s exhausting—but in a good way,” he said. “I much rather have it this way than last year, where sometimes it felt like you had to drag opinions out of someone’s nose.”

Learning the Trade – “To break the book, you need to know the book first”

The new Fnatic is a work in progress—and GrabbZ is fine with that. What matters is the process.

With three new players, we have to stabilize the mid game again. There are things we were good at on the old Fnatic that we now have to rebuild. But we’re going to take it slow, build it step by step, not put extra pressure on ourselves.

The focus is on fundamentals over style. GrabbZ has little patience for the European tendency to force a playstyle without understanding the basics.

I really don’t like the idea of band-aiding stuff. The whole ‘playstyle’ thing—in Korea I can see it, because they have the fundamentals. In Europe, it usually means teams do the same thing over and over without thinking about context. I hate it. To break the book, you need to know the book first. Almost no team in Europe know the book.

Hear from @LospalolKR as he talks about settling into the team and joining the black and orange 🖤🧡 pic.twitter.com/PHbsnC8tIM

— FNATIC (@FNATIC) December 19, 2025

Where Fnatic already has an edge is self-awareness. “What I can say is: we do some stuff really good, we do some stuff really bad—but we’re all aware of it together. No one has the ego of making excuses. So we can work on it fast and efficiently.”

Growing Pains

For the first time in recent memory, Fnatic might enter a split without being locked into the top four conversation. GrabbZ acknowledges the reality—while rejecting the narrative.

It’s fair to say that with three new players and two rookies, the skill floor is lower. If we’re going to have a bad game, we will have a really bad game. Whereas before, even in a bad game, you had five star players who could still win.

But GrabbZ sees a crucial distinction between floor and ceiling. “I don’t care about this narrative of who’s locked where. So much can happen. I know for a fact the gap between top three, top four, and the rest of the league. I don’t think the rest of the league got much better. So while maybe in the beginning we’ll struggle—be on similar footing—I have high confidence that even after the LEC Versus, we’re going to be clearly better than the rest of the league.“

The real challenge lies at the top. “To beat G2 and MKOI consistently, you have to take risks. And we felt that Empyros and Lospa both have the biggest chance of improving. They’re both very eager, and we can already see some growth. Obviously it comes with growing pains. If fans hope to hear me say we’re going to win every game—it’s not going to happen. We’re going to have some issues in the beginning,” he confessed. “But we’re not planning for LEC Versus. We’re planning for Spring and Summer.“

A new team, a new opportunity.@Vladi1v9 talks about joining the Fnatic family and his goals for the upcoming season 🧡 pic.twitter.com/6QNMIfYeAM

— FNATIC (@FNATIC) December 17, 2025

F*cking Fighting – “There’s no point in doing this if there’s no chance of winning”

Despite the lower floor, GrabbZ’s ambitions remain unchanged. The goal isn’t to rebuild slowly—it’s to compete for titles this year.

“The goal is to win Summer. That’s a given. I want this roster to be able to do so, and I think we can. There’s no point in doing this if there’s no chance of winning. This team for sure has a chance of winning—even Winter already.”

The early signs are encouraging. “We’re closer to the top teams than I thought we would be at this point in time. Do I think there’s a world where we beat G2 and MKOI? Of course. I think we have the talent. Would I pressure my players into expecting that immediately? No—they’ve been together for a year already. We give ourselves time to grow healthily, and we’re going to be a really hard team to play against.”

Even for Worlds, GrabbZ refuses to accept moral victories. “I think getting to top eight would make me satisfied. But winning Summer and then doing the same stuff in Swiss as this year? I would still be unhappy. Because the focus is on playing the game well. If you play well, you should be able to leave Swiss. If we win the split and then lose at Worlds’ first stage, it just means we got lucky or didn’t understand the game correctly.”

The FNC family has welcomed new blood. The old guard has accepted their role as mentors. And the instructions from above are clear: play well, grow healthily and win by Summer, or don’t bother. By order of Fnatic.

Fnatic 2026’s roster:

• Toplane: Panagiotis “Empyros” Tantis
• Jungle: Iván “Razork” Martín
• Midlane: Vladimiros “Vladi” Kourtidis
• ADC: Elias “Upset” Lipp
• Support: Park “Lospa” Joon-hyeong

Coaching staff:

• Fabian “GrabbZ” Lohmann
• Pablo “Gaax” Pérez