United Kingdom-based esports organization Fnatic has announced the addition of four new members to its League of Legends coaching staff. After finishing 2nd in the Regional Finals, Fnatic was then eliminated in 5 – 8th at the 2019 World Championships. To ensure that the team can perform better as it heads into the 2020 season, it has brought on a new team director, manager, assistant coach, and strategic coach.
At Fnatic, we're thinking longterm.
League of Legends Staff Update.
Welcome, @dardo_lol, @followLocoEX, @AagieKLZ, and @Veigar_v2 to our #LEC backroom. 🖤🧡 pic.twitter.com/GwKfSmXTLs
— FNATIC (@FNATIC) January 13, 2020
Fnatic adds four to its coaching staff
“The first thing was really to create a culture where we could build around the team and really start to figure out how to make this a team that can win and get the results whilst also having a good time,” said Sam Mathews, Founder and CEO of Fnatic, in the announcement tweet’s video.
Fnatic has brought on League of Legends team director Javier “Dardo” Zafra, manager Alexander “LocoEX” Hugo, assistant coach Carlos “Aagie” Cuenca, and strategic coach Marius “Veigar v2” Aune. Many of these new additions have worked with other esports organizations previously, such as Javier’s experience on Origen and H2K between 2016 to 2018. Aagie also served as an analyst for academy team G2 Heretics, and Veigar v2 was with teams like Riddle Esports, Movistar Riders, and Fact Revolution.
Long term planning for 2020
“First of all, it’s because I believe Fnatic is a winning team, made by winners, and that’s what I think that we can do this year, like winning it all,” said Dardo, Team Director of Fnatic League of Legends. “It’s because I feel like Fnatic is the type of organization where I can work on a long term plan and work for a long term basis, and where we can also bring new innovations, new ideas, and I can be helpful to keep helping them to be a worldwide top esports organization.”
Dardo goes on to highlight that the new team management will help understand past issues that have led to poor performance. In addition, this will help fix internal challenges that prevented the organization from continuing its regional success to international tournaments.
Fnatic came close to bringing the League of Legends Championship trophy back to Europe in 2018. However, the team will have to do much better in 2020 given the dominance that G2 Esports showcased in 2019.
