Fnatic gets Rekked - a Fan’s Perspective

by Sandie "Moondove" Gade

So, after months of long drawn out mystery, secrecy and endless Reddit speculation, the announcement was finally made: Rekkles is no longer with Fnatic, but has instead switched to Alliance.

There's been so much drama regarding the whole situation with Rekkles and his alleged (and now confirmed) departure. So what really happened? I guess we will never know for sure; all we know is what we hear, and even with the official statements from Alliance, Fnatic, and Rekkles himself, how can we ever really be sure we're getting the untainted truth? Fact is, we can’t.

This article is the story and the scene of events regarding the mess seen from a fan’s perspective.

The Fnatic Image

The Fnatic image seen from the outsider’s view is one of having a strong internal bond of friendship and extremely close relationships (which has led to many teasing allegations of homosexuality). The word ‘family’ is often used in regard to Fnatic, and when you see the pictures they post on social media and watch their stream and hear what goes on in their house, this is the sense you get: Fnatic is one, big, happy family!

But what do we really know beyond what they tell us? Not a lot, it appears. Rekkles was always spouting phrases like “we are a team, we are a family. We win together and lose together.” But it took no more than one bad World Championship for him to go running to Alliance for talks of transfer. A team, who, by the way, did no better at Worlds than Fnatic did. So where was his family loyalty while making this choice?

The salty part of me wonders, if he ever truly meant any of what he said about being a family, or if he was just trying desperately to make it true by spouting lines about team spirit and familial union to reinforce the Fnatic image of togetherness and brotherly love already manifested in the minds of the fans.

Work Ethics

I am a huge Fnatic fan. I have great love in my heart for these boys and was crushed by Rekkles’ choice. My initial reaction was sadness, disbelief and a feeling of betrayal. I felt like his decision was a knife to the back considering his aforementioned grand declarations of being a family. The fact that he went to Alliance just made it all the worse for me. I kept thinking: “Come on, man, you had just one bad split, you won spring split, give this a chance. Stick together, win or lose and work on improving TOGETHER as a team, like you always said you would!”

Then, as the days went by and the rumors went on and on endlessly, my Fnatic loving mind started racing. I started to take mental stock of every stream I have ever seen from that house, every interview, every picture, every Facebook/Twitter post. And it occurred to me what I personally think went wrong:

Rekkles is a workaholic, he wants to be the best and he is driven by pure ambition to reach this goal. sOAZ, Cyanide and xPeke, while still driven and dedicated to the game (despite what some haters might say), have a more relaxed attitude towards the game and also enjoy just chilling and having fun every once in a while. Yellowstar, to me, appears to be Switzerland in all of this, always the neutral even-tempered one, but still with a strong work ethic.

So maybe placing Rekkles on Fnatic was a mistake from the beginning, maybe it was just a bad match in both personality and work ethics.

Fnatic's Struggles

A lot of people have been wondering: What happened to Fnatic during the past season? At spring split, they had some really dramatic spikes of ups and downs, but they managed to pull through and come out on top. At summer split, things somehow looked even grimmer. They looked off in some way and were far from consistent, just not at all like the Fnatic fans were used to. They still did really well in a lot of games, and second place in the split is nothing to sneeze at, but something seemed off.

So what was it? Was it simply that Alliance was doing better? Was it lack of motivation from some of the players? Or was it something else?

A few of the core players from Fnatic have been taking a lot of heat for inconsistent or downright bad play.

Some of the rumors that floated around said that Rekkles had been having these talks of a possible transfer since the end of spring split, or at least that he has had the desire to leave since then. If this is true, could this explain the shaky summer split? If Rekkles was already unhappy with being on the team back then, wouldn’t that rub off on the game play of the team? Even if nothing was said aloud at that point, I imagine it would have affected them all on a subconscious level.

The Finer Points of Fandom – Team or Individual

While I am officially and openly a Fnatic fan, I have always explained to people that I am not a fan of the name/organization, I am a fan of the players as people. I am a fan of these boys for their personalities and who they are as people, not (only) their skills as players. This probably sets me apart from a lot of fans of this game, but I also feel like there are some of you out there nodding your heads and going: “Yeah, I get what’s she’s saying, I feel the same.”

This game is so unique in its fandom. We get a different “relationship” with these players than you would if you were a fan of a football player, for instance. We follow them on Facebook and Twitter, they share stuff with us and will answer questions if we are lucky. We also have the streams: A place to come and hang out with them, chilling, learning from them and sometimes watching them feed and make idiots of themselves. While many fans do tend to place their idols high up on an unreachable pedestal, this special form of “getting to know them” that e-sports offers us does bring them down to a more human and accessible level.

What Now?

So now that Rekkles made his statement and we have that all cleared up, the question remains: What happens to Fnatic now?

In Danish, we have a saying: “Equal children play better together” and I think the sentiment holds true here. If this was indeed a matter of different work ethics then, like I said, perhaps Rekkles was just never the right fit for Fnatic no matter how much they wanted him to be.

Maybe Rekkles will thrive with Alliance, or maybe he will fall flat on his face and realize he made the biggest mistake of his life. Only time will tell.

Also, we still have another unconfirmed rumor floating around. One saying that xPeke, being fed up with the way the Rekkles situation was handled, is leaving to start his own team, and is taking Cyanide and sOAZ with him. That would leave Fnatic with nothing but the aforementioned neutral Yellowstar, and the organization would have to build a new team from scratch around him.

As mentioned earlier, I am a fan of players, not the organization. And as it happens, my biggest fan love lies with the trio of xPeke, Cyanide and sOAZ. So if these rumors do indeed turn out to be true, I will cease being a Fnatic fan the minute they leave, and instead be a fan of the new team they make, and count my lucky stars that they, at least, stuck together.

But like I said, these are still only unconfirmed rumors, so let’s see what happens. One thing is for sure: With everything that has been going on this off-season, and not just in Fnatic and Alliance, we are in for one hell of a spring split. I can’t wait, how about you?

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by Moondove