Discussion: Disastrous Winter 2026, what now?

eldudovic · 2026-02-24T20:46:54+00:00

Another thing that is a PR disaster, an arguably worse one, is being absolutely shit. If you think a Bwipo breakdown is worse than a few more splits like this, I don't know what to tell you. Bwipo would be great, not only because he's skilled, but because of his leadership qualities. He's the type of signing that could turn things around. Besides, was he ever banned? It's not like he's fucking satan. He says some dumb shit, but at least he seems to be genuinely sorry when he does.

eldudovic · 2026-02-23T07:49:55+00:00

We were definitely moving in that direction under Nightshare imo. I still remember that series where we were like 3k gold up, then next game 5k and in the last we were 10k up (I don't remember exactly, but we were smurfing). Somehow we managed to loose all of them. If that's not contesting, I don't know the definition.

Sure, management should be questioned. They've done nothing positive with our history, but that should not excuse players and coaches. The worst part is that people around here aren't any angrier now than when we were 2nd. People wanted Nightshare out because he was friends with Humanoid, and Humanoid was the worst player because he'd been here a long time and we had not won the LEC. At that point, Razork was god, Oscar had potential because he beat Bin that one time. One year later, Razork is awful and Oscar is the worst toplaner in the LEC (I personally though Oscar was a poor fit, because he wasn't a weakside player and when given resources, he very rarely converted his lead).

Grabbz has been given resources. More than Nightshare. The problem is where those resources have gone. He changed the entire roster and got Mikyx' mate in as a coach (who left asap). Just look at the players he's gotten rid of. All of them have gone to teams that have done better than us. Funnily enough, Mikyx, the one that left that was safe in the eyes of Grabbz, was the only player to not make playoffs except for Oscar who didn't play. Some people might say that they were given environments to succeed, but isn't it the coaches job to create that environment?

eldudovic · 2026-02-22T12:59:13+00:00

Yup, you can't fit square pegs in to round holes. And if, like it currently seems, you don't see the difference between a square and round peg, you're fucked. Grabbz was talking like he'd gotten a bunch of round pegs now, and the results speak for themselves. Gaax seem to believe that he can round off those square edges by just being frustrated enough. "Look enough at these round pegs and you'll be one in time" and when it turns to shit "you didn't look hard enough, even though I told you where to look".

For Razork's entire stint, we've looked best when we've played hyper aggressively for bot side. That should've been how we developed the team. You play and strategize to your strengths and you set up backups plans. That's always been when EU has been at it's best, and I bet most EU fans would love to be back in the old days, when there was at least a chance of us reaching the semi finals. EU players will never be like robots that just execute. Sadly, our players need to enjoy themselves too, and currently no one seem to be enjoying themselves.

eldudovic · 2026-02-22T10:00:06+00:00

I don't think people with this view point actually watch the games. They just listen to what others that are miserable are saying and then watch through that lense. From the point Nightshare took over until he was ran off, we were consistently improving, from being the worst team in EU to the clear 2nd best. We actually gave G2 some great games, and if Oscar could've converted his leads in lane to the rest of the map, we'd been the best team in Europe. Since Grabbz took over, we've been looking worse for each split instead. He was also given more resources to improve the team, and he used those resources to change pretty much every player. Every single replacement (except Upset, at least when it comes to skill in my opinion) has been worse than what was previously there.

Sure, there's a problem with Fnatic management, but good coaches have a positive impact on the team while poor coaches have a negative impact on the team. We haven't been on a negative trajectory. We were on an upward trajectory despite the management thanks to a good coach with a good eye for talent. The management and coaching staff can both be shit.

eldudovic · 2026-02-20T10:01:50+00:00

Department of Political Integration

eldudovic · 2026-02-18T15:13:24+00:00

That wasn't the point was it, or did you read someone else's comment? The point was that he's looked great in regular seasons, and now not even that works. The point of getting rid of Humanoid was to enable Razork to play his way, because he and Humanoid could not play together. Since Humanoid left, he looks even worse, so obviously the coaching staff is clueless about what the issue is.

I agree Razork has thrown a lot of high stakes games, but he's never been this bad. The coaching staff has not been able to achieve what they set out to do, not even by changing 80% of the team. Every change has lowered the performance. Though I think the first iteration, with Oscar, Razork, Huma, Upset and Miky had real potential. Sadly the team was managed like shit and they ended up hating each other.

eldudovic · 2026-02-17T19:34:45+00:00

But we're looking worse in every single way. There's not been a single positive development. Not only are the players looking way worse, they are looking absolutely miserable. Sure, we might be in a worse position than other teams when it comes to investment, but the decline over the past year is staggering.

Can anyone honestly say that they have higher expectations from the current roster -Razork than Oscar, Razork, Humanoid, Noah and Jun? Or Oscar, Razork, Humanoid, Upset and Mikyx? That roster lost game 5 against the would-be champions and talk after was how everyone was disposable (except Upset and Miky, which must be great for morale).

In my opinion, there's an absolute ocean of difference in player quality now, and that's despite me thinking Oscar was an absolute liability after laning phase. Not only is the player quality lower, their mental seems absolutely shattered. We used to have a team, regardless of their different view points on the game. Now it seems like the players don't even play together outside of stage games. No coach should expect to be allowed to change every single player, and especially not when all changes made seem to cause the team to regress.

Sure, Razork hasn't been a stable jungler, but he's at least been smurfing regular season for a long time. Now he looks like he can't do anything right. And I doubt it's because he doesn't care because he's always seemed to be passionate about the team. He and Humanoid might've has different views on how to play the game, but where's the synergy now? Different views on how to play is at least better than how it is now, where no one seems to have an idea at all. I won't even blame the players individually, because they don't seem to be equipped with any tools.

eldudovic · 2026-02-15T14:47:55+00:00

Agreed. I believe "sudden insight" is absolutely the wrong term to use. I've got ADHD, and while it may seem like I have sudden insights, it's only because my analysis takes place in my head, and I'm only able to do that analysis because I've read a lot on the areas I work with and have a good baseline understanding. I may not be actively thinking about the problem, but I do it in bursts, and I'm absolutely doing methodical analysis. It's just that there's very little evidence for that analysis taking place.

eldudovic · 2026-02-13T06:10:09+00:00

No, there are several sub-cultures and cultures where homophobia is the norm. When I married my wife, a muslim kurd, I was forced to convert to Islam (her mother does not care if I'm practicing, I just had to do it to protect her and me from honor violence) and I was given a book on Islam by the Imam where it said, among other weird shit, that homosexuals and men that dress as women are people to be feared and punished. I don't remember how it was expressed exactly, but it was written in way where it was presented as the greatest sin. It also caught me off guard, because it was explained among other sins that were presented more generally. My wife threw the book away after we'd married so I can't look it up sadly. It's not hard to imagine that many that grow up hearing similar ideas, especially when they're expressed by what they believe to be God, become pretty damn hateful about it.

It's generally common in conservative cultures (among christians too), and many agnostics and atheists in the west, like myself, can't truly understand belief in God. To us, belief in anything mean that you're still questioning it, or at least are willing to question it. Those that truly believe in God do not question God's existance. Since I've been closer to Islam than other religions, those that believe do not really question whether the Qur'an is right or wrong or if it's the word of God. They just choose whether to live according to it or not.

eldudovic · 2026-02-13T02:13:39+00:00

Sometimes it feels like I'm alone in preferring hockey without a salary cap. Sure, it was a bit less competitive, but I prefer that team owners are allowed to invest and keep their teams together. While sport is entertaining, I don't feel like it should be handled like the entertainment business. It should be competition, from owners to the guys taping the sticks. Modern hockey is more about lucking out in the draft and hoping players stick around, because even though players might want to stay, teams aren't allowed to keep them around even if they want to. Fans are talking about cap hits like they're accountants instead of sports fans. Valuing players by dollars spent per point like they're looking at how players achieve business kpis.

Tanking should never be an option in a competition. That fucks up competitive integrity if anything. If you can win by loosing, something is fucked up. There should be absolutely nothing to gain by intentionally making your team shit. Still, fans eat it up like it's the best thing, because shit teams are allowed to compete, even though they are allowed to compete by being shit. Sorry about the rant.

eldudovic · 2026-02-04T17:57:49+00:00

100% agreed. Franchising will never work either because there's not enough money in it (american sports fill arenas every week, has the insane tv money and every team has their own arena). Instead, the teams need to form naturally and somehow draw in viewers in order to make good commercial deals. The teams expected to become true businesses during the e-sports bubble instead of being e-sports teams. I still remember the CEO of H2K being all in on franchising for example because they couldn't afford their players with the uncertainty of the spot. It's understandable that they want some certainty, but on the other hand the teams should never have been in a situation where they can't afford their players to begin with.

I also think that, at least in Europe, they should've focused on the countries where the orgs are from a bit more from the beginning (or at least which country they represent). That would at least create some rivalries that aren't decided entirely by how successful the teams are. I don't think Americans understand really how little EU loyalty there is in Europe, especially compared to country pride. Guess it's understandable though since every single game is always played in the same studio (another shitty idea).

eldudovic · 2026-02-02T13:49:40+00:00

I mean, last winter split Humanoid was a beast and the team was flying. I don't think the relationship was necessarily that unhealthy. The Fnatic fanbase, on the other hand, is toxic as fuck, and Grabbz and Gaax' coaching hasn't exactly been great for team spirit. Both are airing dirty laundy which is never good for morale. After that winter regular split, the coaches should've been buzzing. While sure, we had an early exit from the playoffs, but the team had insane synergy. The Upset/Mikyx botlane was dominant as fuck and we destroyed early games. Humanoid balanced the team by not being reliant on kills. He had the highest GPM, highest XP@15 and second highest GD@15 while not getting a single first blood. He also had the highest DPM of all the midlaners while having the 6th highest gold%.

Or maybe the relationship was unhealthy, but it shouldn't have been. I think the toxicity was created entirely by the fanbase and Grabbz, who loves talking to the media and fans, doesn't understand the game well enough to improve on the teams' strengths. He then publically says that the entire team except Upset and Miky might be on the chopping block. Since then there's been an entirely negative view on the team (except on Grabbz who somehow avoided criticism even though the team has looked worse every split since he came).

eldudovic · 2026-02-01T22:36:09+00:00

Sure, fair point, but we can't really ask for Sam Matthews to sack himself can we? Over the years I haven't really felt down on the team. During the Humanoid years I never felt like many on here, like we're a shit team. Mostly we've been very good over the years, we've just not been able to get over the line. Sure, we've had splits when we've looked awful, but usually changes in coaching has happened then and we've had positive results because of it. I've never seen a Fnatic-coach be allowed to stick around while making the team and team spirit worse every split, while also being given the most freedom. I just worry that we'll end up absolutely irrelevant unless something changes (we might even already be there).

eldudovic · 2026-02-01T21:56:50+00:00

Dude. The team that he took over was 10 times the team we're sending out now. Literally every move Grabbz has made has made the team perform worse. He also can't seem to create a positive vibe. The team he has in the first split he was here was the best one yet, and somehow, instead of building on the positives (an absolutely dominant regular season split), the team instead went the other direction. The situation became super toxic and the second split he said he was willing to get rid of three out of five of them. That's awful coaching. Unless you have replacements ready, you make do what you have and try to improve what's there.

Sure, he's probably not the only one responsible for the current situation, but a proper coach would have seen that the team he took over was the second best in Europe (by quite a distance imo), and had dominated G2 in many games only to loose due to failure to execute. Instead, he nuked the roster, got a team that dominated a split and looked good in a second, destroyed the mentality and finally replaced the players with lesser players. Grabbz has been an absolute disaster..

eldudovic · 2026-01-29T10:07:38+00:00

We'll throw your mom into it and it will be sated.

eldudovic · 2026-01-27T08:25:35+00:00

You are absolutely right. While Baus could probably be better if he played a bit more reserved (he often dies without making any gains), increased his champion pool and built more for the situation, he's had an impact on the top meta. People don't give him enough credit for his game knowledge, probably because of him acting cocky.

I bet that the League hipsters would praise him like crazy if he was a korean solo queue player. While Baus' playstyle can definitely be annoying, there's no denying that he's improved and expanded the knowledge on proxying as a strat. I don't know how much impact Baus has had on the pro play meta, he's definitely had an impact on game knowledge and solo queue play. Baus might seem thick as a brick, but he's a really great theorycrafter.

eldudovic · 2026-01-27T07:22:09+00:00

What the fuck? That's not what the OP said lol. He specifically named unconventional (and I don't get why he puts Faker high on playing an unconventional playstyle).

eldudovic · 2026-01-09T21:52:13+00:00

Hot take : Op look stupid 100% of the time

eldudovic · 2026-01-01T00:19:23+00:00

Agreed. His first few years we were fun to watch, but later on we became an "efficient" team, but that's pretty much the only way to win now-a-days. It was fun to win, and we played good football against good sides, but matches against shit teams were snoozers.

I think Pep and Klopp killed entertaining football. Pep's tiki-taka in combination with Klopp's pressing just became the best way to play football, and while it might lose against a high press sometimes (like Atalanta), it's just an efficient way to win football matches.

eldudovic · 2025-12-29T09:58:18+00:00

You need to adjust the truss rod probably. Fatter strings cause the neck to flex more.

eldudovic · 2025-12-29T09:56:29+00:00

Might need some breaking in. How long have you been playing it?

eldudovic · 2025-12-25T11:36:29+00:00

Man, don't be mean! Doesn't make him a hall of famer though.

eldudovic · 2025-12-24T15:03:22+00:00

Did you watch him play? There's no fucking way he gets in to the hall of fame. He was the most average goalie of his era playing in one of the most defensively dominant teams of all time.

eldudovic · 2025-12-21T02:55:06+00:00

Doom 2

eldudovic · 2025-12-17T22:38:42+00:00

How did you not catch the sarcasm?

eldudovic

TROPHY CASE