Fnatic

Whereas that was already like this first sort of sign of like, oh, actually after the original roster that built all the success, it's just going to be another esports org.

Much like, think about all the names that have age barrier, NIP, Fnatic, Virtus Pro.

None of these teams have the roster of what they used to be.

But I think the other thing that's also pressing about this specific move, because I saw this is quite rare in esports.

He got both barrels from Astralis.

Like... it's mad since since Bioware have closed down I've been thinking about the old Mass Effect games and you know like the little dialogue wheel that will come up like they're always picking that you know one of the options is always just batshit insane like you would never pick it like that's the option Astralis seem to pick every damn time it's like what if we do the craziest most harmful thing for everyone let's pick that one and so yeah like and this this is where it's left them dude this was the team that even now, like with Vitality's dominance and everything, people still, you know, talk about the Astralis era and how good it was.

And that's why, you know, when people say how Fnatic fell apart, it's like, yeah, that's also a shame.

But it was over kind of a longish period.

Because then you get, like, that real temperature check, don't you? You don't get the whole thing of the hype before and then afterwards when you already know the result you can tell.

so normally i would make this episode only about what's going on now except for you know fan questions but we're actually going to take the tone down a little second so what i wanted to do at the beginning of the episode so we don't forget is there was sadly actually a real tragedy that happened in esports specifically league of legends quite recently which is even though this individual did pass away a few months ago we were only just informed in the last couple of days via a finnish newspaper that the legendary European jungler and champion Cyanide, who most famously played for Fnatic basically his whole career, actually passed away earlier this year, apparently based on the dates it's being reported, or not that long actually after he did that League of Legends classic show match, which was kind of like the moment when If you remember, we got to have like a bunch of old pros come back and have like a moment where everyone got to see them on camera and see what they're up to, et cetera.

No one knows the circumstances of what's happened.

We just know, sadly, that he's passed away.

I think the vibe of that fanatic roster was really, it was so cohesive because everyone was just on the same wavelength in terms of how they approach things.

uh through that also just um showed um you know an immense amount of skill in the game too i think cyanide was insanely talented really really good at the game and uh i think that you know everyone around them everyone that spent time with him always knew this is a just a person that says it spreads just joy uh that that was my impression obviously this was a long time ago i was very young young but this is like my memory uh of the guy and It really, really makes you think like this is, you know, at the age of 31, it's crazy young and definitely had an immense impact on League of Legends.

I think, you know, was it four years in Fnatic? This was a very, very strong period of Fnatic, of course, and He had an immense impact on the game and just European League of Legends in the early years because that's like the early years of League of Legends was pretty much EU League of Legends and NA League of Legends just clashing, right? And I think Cyanide was a very, very core part of EU history for sure.

Yeah, what I'll do is I'll give like the historian side of it for people who don't know, because understandably, there'll be a lot of modern fans that have heard the name or know it was a FNAC player or a teammate of Xpec and so on, but maybe they don't know who this player was.

Are they ever going to be relevant again? I would low-key hate if it was the same conversation with Na'Vi.

I can accept, you know, one team once in a while pulling that off, you know, like Fnatic a couple of years ago, Astralis nowadays as well.

That conversation has died out, you know.

FaZe is the most recent example of a team that, maybe is never going to come back to where they were.

It was peak.

And Fnatic, who went to semifinals, and Gambit, who was a world favorite the previous year and had all those EU legends like Diamond Prox and Alex Hitch, were the two teams that made it out of groups.

And then they – like I think Fnatic beat – Samsung twice, and Gambit went one and one, and then Samsung beat every other team in the group, including the NA team.

Like, I don't think it was actually nearly the same level of comparison.

The thing is, it's important that you don't rewrite history there, because, like...

Paravision locked their major in by making the grand final.

It wasn't a sure thing until this event, but they beat Magic, they beat Fnatic, they beat Big.

Great.

Liquid obviously already locked in.

Because Liquid played some of the worst CS we've ever witnessed.

Like genuinely dreadful.

They got beat 2-0 by Fnatic, and they looked so poor.

2-0 by Magic, who themselves were having a great event.