FNC GrabbZ: "If I could offer my head on a pike to the fans, I would do it"

's LEC season officially came to an end this Sunday. The Black and Orange had their fate in their own hands, but were defeated by GIANTX. As a result, and for the second consecutive split after Spring, Fnatic will miss out on the playoffs, also bringing their historic streak of Worlds qualifications to an end.

The team's Head Coach, Fabian "GrabbZ" Lohmann, reflected on the end of Fnatic's campaign in an interview with Sheep Esports. He discussed the numerous issues his team encountered over the past few weeks and how he sees their future moving forward.

Fabian "GrabbZ" Lohmann: “Emptiness, to be honest. It’s hard to express in words. A lot of frustrations, a lot of things that are hard to explain. But ultimately, going into the last few games, we truly thought from how we discussed the game that we should be better than those three teams, and we lose 2-0, 2-1, 2-1. So ultimately, then we're very clearly shit compared to them, and we don't go to playoffs. That's simple. Not sure if it was just the Lulu or if it's about, again, not showing on stage what we can do. Doesn't matter in the end. We failed spectacularly and it sucks. With that loss, we are out of playoffs, it sucks for everyone, or it should suck at least. I'm sad and a bit angry.

GrabbZ: We're not playing the game. So many times. Between games, we talk about having to push the waves deep and get control in the jungle and use the moves correctly. And for some reason in game, we are too scared to do it. GIANTX is good. I think compared to the playoff teams, we are not the best when it comes to playing with sides, and we just don't do these steps. And then we take fights with uneven numbers. Not sure if it's pressure, maybe just coaching. I don't want to talk about players here. Ultimately, I'm the head coach and if we can't play the game, that means that I'm not doing my job correctly.

GrabbZ: It's a massive failure in all regards, an embarrassment for the org. There's no positive to say. There's just emptiness. If I could offer my head on a pike to the fans, I would do it. It's hard to find words right now.

GrabbZ: Again, I could give more context, but I think any context right now would sound more like me talking about players and what they did wrong. So all I can say is that maybe as coaching staff, we didn't prepare them mentally enough for the stressful situation or make the plans clearer and remove the decision-making from the game, which is something we tried. We tried to prepare them so they felt like “okay, if we're stressed, we make the decisions we planned beforehand.” I guess as coaching staff, we could have done more in that situation. And as you said, I think we have shown glimpses that we can play the game, but it's very frustrating that we lose the game on very basic stuff.

Maybe the fans look at the team fights and whatever, right, or compositions, but if we can't push a wave correctly and then get vision on one side, that's the first very basic thing we don't do consistently. And then that just means that our practice maybe was wrong, our approach was wrong, I don't know.

GrabbZ: As a fan of the game, it does. Of course, the organization is a big name. We didn't do the job correctly to reach Worlds. Sorry for the fans, for the brand name Fnatic. I'm very sorry. It's a weird feeling. For 11 years of my career, I never really doubted myself and the job I'm doing. Today, it's pretty hard to overlook that. Yeah, again, sorry for the fans.

GrabbZ: It's hard to say, really. I feel like G2 is hard to judge because the last two games they played against us and GIANTX, they played really bad, but maybe they're just in a bit of an experimental mode. But I think to a degree, KC and G2 outside, every team in the league has glaring issues in certain areas. And so if you make a five-and-five group, I think the teams three, four, and five just get stomped the way it is right now.

I don't think it will benefit the league in itself. I think it would just put the spotlight more on the teams that are losing already. But maybe. I don't have insight on that, could be interesting. For me, it’s not really important right now to think about that. I'm not going to lie.

GrabbZ: Looking at the future, it's hard. We don't know what's happening with the org itself as well. Maybe it gets sold. We don’t know anything. So it's really hard to think about what happens in the future for us as a group. Evidently, I don't expect to be head coach next year with my performance. I think I'm the first responsible. I can give context to the people on top and see what they feel. So for me, it's hard to judge the group itself.

Evidently, after such a failure, it's always hard to keep personal grudges aside. So I think it's hard to foresee this group sticking together and that configuration. We're all having question marks about the future. And I really hope for the players that they find a good spot. They put in the effort, they tried, they had their own issues, but we really tried.

So I hope that all five of them and also Gaax (Pablo Pérez), who I want to shout out here, because especially he had some, let's be honest, childish tweets afterwards where he got a lot of flak for. But I've been on the scene for a long time, and he's one of the hardest workers, has a good mind for the game, and is very passionate. And I just really hope that people don't judge him by the tweets he makes, where he's still very young. He's 25 now as a coach, but by the work he does, I feel like him as a head coach as well. So shout out to him. I really hope he also finds a place and can show teams that he has lots of value, and same for the five players.

GrabbZ: It’s hard to say how teams see me. I love the game. I love what I do. I want to continue doing it. Again, I love the game. I love my job. I had two years where I wasn't there because of a one-year BDS contract, and one year I didn't have a team. And sure, it's nice to have a vacation for a few years, but afterwards, I was miserable.

I hope I can still try to show that I'm better than my name now. Again, for 11 years, I never doubted myself. Even for the G2 memes, I know what I can bring to a team. Now it's a bit hard to see. So I don't know. I would love to keep working in esports. Ultimately, though, after BDS and now not even playoffs, I'm not blind. It's hard to make a case. But yeah, I will reach out to teams. Again, maybe with Fnatic, I have no idea what happens with the org, right? So we have to see. I will try to stay in the scene for sure. I love it too much to give up. But yeah, right now it's really hard.”