"Big Changes Will Come": Fnatic Leadership Apologizes After Missing Worlds 2026

On Sunday, were eliminated from the Summer Split. The European organisation failed to make it to the Summer playoffs for the first time since the inception of the LEC after losing its do-or-die series of the Regular Season to GIANTX 1-2. While Fnatic’s League of Legends roster has been struggling for the past few years now, this season hit a new low for the team.

Indeed, one of the most consistent international representatives of League of Legends EMEA Championship will therefore miss the World Championship for the first time since 2016. For one of the most storied teams in the LEC, this is undoubtedly a massive upset.

Fnatic’s Founder and CEO, Sam Mathews, has called the 2026 LEC season the “hardest one” so far and announced that “big changes” will arrive across the entire organization. The decision comes due to the fact that not only Fnatic’s LoL roster is struggling at the moment, but its VALORANT section has also missed out on Champions for the first time in history.

“We miss Worlds and Champs,” he stated. “Tough day, tough month, tough year. Hardest one yet. I'm sorry I've led Fnatic to this place in 26. Please don't put blame on anyone but me. A lot to unpack, review and eventually share but big changes will come. Across the org.” He further assured fans that the team will try to be “as transparent as possible” about the changes.

Fnatic’s head coach, Fabian "GrabbZ" Lohmann, also acknowledged that the team’s exit has been a "gigantic failure” and asked the community to put the blame on him instead of the players. He also announced that he will do a livestream to answer fans’ questions after an internal debrief.

“Gigantic failure of a year and I take full responsibility. I will stream and answer to the Fnatic fateful after debriefing with everyone - If I could offer my head on a pike to appease you I would. Refrain from attacking the players please, leave it all here,” GrabbZ said.

After a heartbreaking run at Worlds 2025, Fnatic made multiple changes to their League of Legends roster to prepare for the 2026 LEC season. However, when the shuffle failed to bring the desired results, the team brought in Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu as its assistant coach. Then, during the mid-season Panagiotis "Empyros" Tantis was let go and replaced by Lim "Soboro" Seong-min as the team’s new toplaner.

While that was not enough to reverse the trajectory of Fnatic’s campaign, being eliminated at the hands of Óscar "Oscarinin" Muñoz Jiménez, who left the team at the end of 2025 to ultimately join GIANTX in 2026, felt like the final nail in the coffin.

Reflecting on the team’s performance, the roster’s performance coach, Richard, said, “What a painful end to our competitive year. I honestly believed we were turning it around this split, but the progress was too slow overall. Everyone on this team tried their best every day and I’m proud of that. No excuses. Sorry to disappoint.”

Looking ahead, Fnatic now have an unusually long offseason and several questions to answer. It will be interesting to see whether the organization will look to retain the current core as the basis of its roster for the 2027 LEC season or opt for a total rebuild, especially considering that every team member’s contract, except Park "Lospa" Joon-hyeong’s, expires this year according to the Global Contract Database.