The boys in black and orange have secured their spot at the 2025 Worlds Championship after defeating Karmine Corp in the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) summer playoffs. Despite a rollercoaster season, FNATIC is back on top, having guaranteed at least a top-three finish as they prepare to face Movistar KOI. In an exclusive interview, head coach Fabian "GrabbZ" Lohmann sat down with Sheep Esports to discuss Karmine Corp’s elimination, FNC’s recent growth, rumors, and the challenges ahead.

It must be a relief to qualify for Worlds. Fnatic has made it nine years in a row now—you didn’t want to be the one to break that streak, right?

Fabian "GrabbZ" Lohmann: "Absolutely, and also it hasn't been the greatest year so far. So getting to Worlds is the minimum for appeasement, to feel like the year’s not wasted. Obviously, we still don't want to lose and end up as third seed—it's kind of pointless. So now we have to win to make it worth it. We'll see.

KC has been struggling this summer. What were your expectations going into this match? Did you anticipate it would be this one-sided, since aside from game three, it felt like you were clearly the better team?

GrabbZ: I was very confident. KC has shown in the last weeks, even in practice, that they’re crumbling a bit. Going into such a game, they still have fantastic players—any of the five can turn it on on the day. But I felt today we were the better team. You never know what's going on behind the scenes, but the whole Nisqy–Vladi situation already showed there were some rumblings.

I still want to shout out Reha (Rehareha Ramanana) and their coaching staff. This is a really hard spot to be in with a young team, especially when you win so early, because then suddenly everybody has a bit of an ego and thinks they know everything better. It can be really hard to get the team together again. They can be proud of this year. They’re still young in the LEC as a coaching staff, so good job to them—even though right now I understand they won’t want to hear it. I’m disappointed for them, but I still wanted to say that.

Fnatic used to be very bot-centric, but lately we've seen a more well-rounded approach, playing through other lanes and showing more intelligence across the map. How do you feel about that growth?

GrabbZ: I'm happy for today. This was the best that Poby (Yoon Sung-won) and Oscarinin (Óscar Muñoz Jiménez) played together in terms of side laning. But this is the minimum we should aim for as a team. It sucks that it took so long. It was a long process, and for room to be taken, room also has to be given. As a team, we had many learnings, and the loss against MKOI helped to a certain degree.

We're talking about a more stable FNATIC, but we have to remember that it’s only one best of five. It doesn’t matter if tomorrow we go back and play like we did two weeks ago. So let’s stay calm. We made many mistakes in these games. Let’s analyze them and make sure tomorrow we play a bit better. MKOI will be strong—I think stronger than KC. Nothing is given, but we’re still confident.

Do you feel like the momentum from today’s match will help? Is there more confidence now after beating KC?

GrabbZ: Yes, it's always a big switch to big tournaments or big stages, so being a bit more familiar with it helps a lot. That being said, the conditions here in Madrid are hard because it’s very warm. The backstage rooms are also very warm, and I’m extremely sweaty. It’s going to be really important that we get time to rest, that the players get to bed early, and have energy for tomorrow. If we get that right, then I think we’ll be at an advantage for sure.

MKOI has been strong all year, even if they struggled against G2 in the upper bracket. With only one night to prepare, what do you see as your edge against them, and have your analysts already done scouting?

GrabbZ: We still have the base scouting from two weeks ago. It’s about watching the games again and confirming or unconfirming what we saw. MKOI is really hard to grasp because in scrims they’re not themselves—we’re usually winning against them, but on stage they’re different players, different beasts. They’re a team that wins a lot through fighting, similar to us, so fight selection will be important. They’re also very creative, whereas we tend to be a bit more rigid. We just have to be careful not to get surprised. It’s going to be a long series for sure. Huge respect to them and how they work. It’s hopefully going to be a fun series, and then we’ll see who wins.

Is there something Fnatic does better than other European teams?

GrabbZ: Even though some teams, after getting beaten by us, say we don’t play the map, I think we have a better grasp of when to trade and when we can actually fight. Sometimes we don’t decide early enough, but today it was much cleaner. It’s really hard to say because all three remaining teams, and including KC, have huge issues. Everyone has things they’re good at and things they’re bad at.

What we’re best at is being more aggressive with diving, especially in bot lane. Today, Canna (Kim Chang-dong) didn’t have a fun time, which shows this approach works. Razork (Iván Martín Díaz) is more willing to give a camp to get a dive in, whereas SkewMond (Rudy Semaan), who is waiting to play on Sunday, tends to farm the camp instead of being there. That’s a big difference.

How do you feel about team cohesion in Fnatic now? Earlier in the year, players struggled to get on the same page, and Óscar mentioned a big discussion in the offseason. Has the team been able to come together more, both in and out of the game?

GrabbZ: The addition of Poby helped for sure. While Poby came in for Humanoid (Marek Brázda), it doesn’t mean Humanoid was the main reason things were bad. He was one of the reasons, and a change had to be made. Humanoid showed the least amount of drive to play, so he was the first to be changed.

We now have a team that talks a lot more about the game we want to play. Previously, Mid and Jungle had a barrier between them—they played together for so long that they couldn’t actually discuss what to do anymore. Poby is now a lot more active. Of course, not everything is perfect—against MKOI we lost, and the mood wasn’t great because of the disappointment.

I also want to shout out Richard Wolter, our sports psychologist. He helps a lot because he has a different way of talking to players than I do. It shows in the current series. In spring and winter, if we lost a game in a best-of-five, the team would be down and didn’t want to keep playing. Especially thinking back to the 3-0 against KC, we played well in the first game, made a mistake, and everything crumbled. Richard has helped make sure we are more stable mentally, believe in ourselves, and keep playing.

There have been many rumors around Fnatic, especially last split and even recently on Twitter. Do these rumors impact the team, and what do you think about them in general?

GrabbZ: I don’t think it has much of an impact. Sure, every team wants to be the “band of brothers,” and we’re not necessarily that—we like each other, but everyone has their own idea of how the future should look. I have strong belief that in the moment, players don’t care about rumors. Whatever happens afterwards, happens afterwards.

Fnatic as an organization wants to bring the best roster they can, and every player wants to play in the best roster they can. There might be disagreements, and I’m not quite sure where the rumors are coming from right now. It always happens, but I don’t think it’s necessarily negative or something that would impact the team.

Elias "Upset" Lipp’s contract runs out after this split, and he’s expressed a desire to stay with Fnatic. How do you feel about him as a player, and are you happy with his performance? Would you personally like to continue playing with him?

GrabbZ: Yeah, of course. He has the drive, obviously. Again, every player has stuff that annoys me, and I have stuff that annoys the players—it’s just human nature—but I really value players who want to win, have the drive to do so, and put in the work. Upset is a model worker in that regard. He comes every day, high energy, and tries his best. That’s exactly what you want in your team. Evidently, whatever happens, I can’t talk about. I honestly don’t care—let’s just focus on this tournament first and then Worlds. Whatever happens afterwards, happens. But I enjoy working with Elias here.

Do you have any final words to hype up the fans for tomorrow’s match?

GrabbZ: You guys know I'm the biggest negative Nancy ever, but right now I'm focusing on the mistakes we made. If we can fix them, we will be the strongest team remaining in this tournament. As I told my players, I had a dream that we won all series 3-1, and afterwards Sam Mathews bought us some Riftbound. I hope that dream comes true, and then we can play some League of Legends card games afterwards."