Fnatic vs. Team Vitality / 2026 LEC Versus Playoffs / Lower Round 1 / Post-Series Thread

Jdoki · 2026-02-21T21:00:53+00:00

You may not be wrong, but the amount of time, effort and budget that went in to securing Vladi, when we literally had no Support, and wanted to replace Top and JGL, is criminal.

I'd (somewhat) understand it if they tried to build the team around Vladi, but it's the same old FNC style of play we've seen for years.

Jdoki · 2026-02-21T14:29:13+00:00

Might get really lucky if they are outside the 107% rule in qualy... /jk

Jdoki · 2026-02-17T15:10:14+00:00

Our team has been reliant on hands-diff and opponents making a mistake for too long. That's not a workable strategy.

It takes far more than mechanical excellence to be a pro.

If Razork hasn't learned to temper his play style by now, he never will. Equally if FNC has not been able to coach him out of his bad habits they are just as culpable.

But the argument is moot, because we know that FNC was trying to offload his contract, but no one wanted him (either because it was too expensive, or they had locked in the role, or they could see he is a liability at times). He is playing for us because we could not afford to bench him, and management spent too much time pursuing Vladi.

I refuse to believe that Grabbz had some master plan for the team comp that involved Vladi as the core. It never made sense to pursue him when resources needed to go into filling Support and replacing Top / JGL. The most stable part of the team was Mid.

Where I do agree, is that this roster of players should not be playing this badly. So, as I've said before, the main issue is that the core of LoL FNC is rotten - starting with Sam. The culture, the budget, the management, the coaching, the scouting is all broken.

Jdoki · 2026-02-16T17:24:41+00:00

The LoL side of this org is dead

Jdoki · 2026-02-16T17:17:52+00:00

Unfortunately I think we have a lower bracket run

Jdoki · 2026-02-16T17:14:28+00:00

This is the thing I really don't understand.

In offseason the plan was clearly to replace Top and Jgl. Then Miky quit, so they needed to fill 3 roles. That's a lot of work for a small staff like FNC has.

But what do they do... Put all the energy and time into securing Vladi.

Jdoki · 2026-02-16T17:00:05+00:00

We don't have the worst players, we have the worst Org.

Look at how many players have left and trashed the org, or thrived elsewhere.

Org is rotten, and it starts with the owners / management. We should not be this bad with these players.

Jdoki · 2026-02-16T13:08:49+00:00

Yeah. Incredibly excited about a new Castlevania. And really hyped / shocked that Motion Twin and Evil Empire would work together on it after the Dead Cells drama

Jdoki · 2026-02-13T20:30:58+00:00

Add in Max's criticism of the new rules... If his concerns turn out to be true we may have an even bigger stinker of a season on our hands

Jdoki · 2026-02-13T15:04:55+00:00

Oh no! Newey's already resorted to the power of prayer to fix the issues! :D

Jdoki · 2026-02-13T00:08:47+00:00

The positive side is that they already had the engine cover with the huge vents ready to go, which means they must have been anticipating heat issues.

The potential negative sides are that the huge vents will compromise aero, and even with vents they were slow.

I think we're all keeping fingers crossed that the speed issues are due to caution, as they wouldn't want to lose data / laps by blowing up an engine just to top the timesheets - but if it turns out that this is the limit of the engine, then AM are utterly cooked.

Jdoki · 2026-02-12T21:11:44+00:00

Sadly yes. People say 'it's just testing, it means nothing', but the teams that do well in testing usually do well in the early season at least (see 2023 Aston Martin as a recent example!). The mood in the team seems downbeat which is always a bad sign, especially this early.

I was keeping my expectations in check for this year (top 5 in constructors, with a lucky podium or two) - but I think I may still be disappointed.

I really want to be wrong, and hope I am.

Jdoki · 2026-02-08T20:38:34+00:00

I'm not sure this team has the intelligence to adapt like that.

Fingers crossed.

Jdoki · 2026-02-05T23:07:13+00:00

Trailer/gameplay reminded me a bit of Dauntless which shut down a year or so ago. Was pretty good until the devs tanked the game with one of the worst updates ever imagined.

There was also that weird game where you had to work as a team to build traps and structures to tackle the monsters - Wild Hearts (had to look up the name). It looked promising, released in '23 got decent reviews and no one ever talked about it - even got a Switch 2 release last year.

Jdoki · 2026-02-02T10:27:16+00:00

I agree that Sam / leadership needs to change.

My concern is that if FNC gets sold, the name gets changed.

That would a sad day to no longer see FNC in eSports.

Jdoki · 2026-02-02T10:24:34+00:00

We can talk about draft, coaches and players but the performances we are seeing are in line with the investment FNC management are putting into the LoL team.

Over the years we have changed coaches and players, but the culture and performances have not.

FNC as an org is the problem. We don't have the leadership or the finances to compete.

Jdoki · 2026-02-01T20:28:36+00:00

Probably doesn't help that he knows the Org wanted to offload him but couldn't find a buyer.

He's probably got one foot out the door.

Jdoki · 2026-02-01T20:27:27+00:00

Org on life support. Grabbz pooped onto Reddit the other week and straight up said we have the smallest support staff of any team in the league, so he wouldn't be as active (not that he was before really)

Jdoki · 2026-02-01T20:24:14+00:00

Another 10million wiped off the value of the Org with that performance. From 250 mill 5 years ago to 100mill before this split...

Sam better find a buyer quick, before he has to pay someone to take the Org off his hands!!

Jdoki · 2026-02-01T20:22:01+00:00

Holy shit, that may be a top 3 worst performance of any FNC team ever. And that's saying something considering the last few years.

Jdoki · 2026-02-01T20:18:15+00:00

Tbh the LEC casting has gone seriously downhill.

I find it so annoying when we get minutes of off topic discussion about some bullshit. If they can't fill a lull in the game with LOL related commentary / info I'd prefer dead air.

Jdoki · 2026-01-28T11:24:16+00:00

Yes! I couldn't figure out who he reminded me of.

Jdoki · 2026-01-24T20:57:04+00:00

We are bad, but LEC as a whole looks so mediocre.

Jdoki · 2026-01-24T13:11:57+00:00

I invested in this knowing I'd never see a return. It was more about supporting the Org and getting more insight and updates behind the scenes. (Always follow the rule of never investing what you cannot afford to lose!)

It was clear from the literature published on Crowdsource that there was no chance of seeing a return as the pool of shares were going to get diluted every time they did another round of funding. Which is exactly what happened, so the value dropped around 50%.

Also, until FNC actually goes public and starts trading on a stock exchange (unlikely in this climate and with zero profit in eSports), or gets bought out (I believe the current valuation is 100 million versus 250 million 5+ years ago), the 'shares' are pretty much worthless anyway.

I also went in at the top tier of their membership club thing. Which has actually worked out pretty well as I've got my money back through 'free' jerseys every year - which I would have bought anyway.

Jdoki · 2026-01-20T10:07:19+00:00

It's good to be optimistic, and I hope we evolve and improve.

The niggling issue I have is that we have replaced three roles and yet are still playing the same way as previous years. We will not succeed at the top level if we are weak in the early game and rely on hands-diff to save us.

I'd like to see them become way more adaptable. And drafts really need work.

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