In League of Legends , Fnatic is one of the largest and best LoL teams in Europe. However, the 6-time championship coach Joey “YoungBuck” Steltenpool is now leaving the organization. What he says in his farewell gives Fnatic fans cause for concern. According to him, there are internal problems in the team that are hindering success.
Who is leaving? The Dutchman Joey “YoungBuck” Steltenpool (28) has been a LoL pro since Season 1. He has been working as a coach since 2015.
As a coach, he has been with the 2 dominant teams in Europe. From 2015 to 2017 at G2 Esports. From 2018 until recently at Fnatic. YoungBuck is also known as the “6-Star-General”.
He led G2 Esports to 4 national titles in a row and then won twice with Fnatic. He has won 6 championships and is considered an outstanding coach.
How did 2019 go for Fnatic? The coach is leaving Fnatic after a year without titles:
- Fnatic at least managed to escape the death group C of the Worlds .
- However, in the quarter-finals, they were eliminated against the later world champion FunPlus Phoenix without a chance.
- Overall, YoungBuck views the year as bad, as they finished behind G2 Esports twice in the league. He cites “internal problems” as the reason.
Coach switches from No. 2 to the bottom of the table
This is so strange now: The coach is now moving from a top team in Europe to Excel Esports. They were the bottom team in the last season.
YoungBuck criticizes the players of Fnatic on his way to the new team.
2019 much worse atmosphere at Fnatic than 2018
This is what the coach says: In a phone interview with “Esportmaniacos“, the coach says:
“I no longer found fulfillment in the job. In 2018, the players were still very open and wanted to learn. It was a good atmosphere, we had fun and spent a lot of time together, even outside of the games.
In 2019, a small group of players no longer really cared about training as a team and did not put in the effort. They stopped talking during training, neither giving feedback nor wanting to receive feedback from their teammates.”
In an interview with Red Bull , the coach says: Different philosophies clash regarding whether players should invest more effort in “Solo Queue” or in team training. There have been a lot of problems, players did not want to play with each other.
Fnatic now needs to make some changes to create a “healthy team atmosphere.”
The search for a scapegoat
What happens now? On Reddit and social media, there is already lively discussion about who is “the rotten egg” at Fnatic.
There are some rumors and speculations following YoungBuck’s statements about what is wrong with the team.
eSports journalist Thorin believes it is related to superstar ADC Martin “Rekkles” Larsson. He suggests that he has also driven away midlaner Caps.
On reddit , Fnatic fans believe the “SoloQ” friend referred to by YoungBuck is midlaner Nemesis. He joined the team in 2019 after Caps moved to G2 Esports.
Some Reddit users criticize YoungBuck for airing “dirty laundry” in public.
In any case, the departure of the coach seems to be causing unrest in the team. The players of G2 Esports handle the defeat differently:
