After a disappointing 2020, the 3-time Major winning org was in dire straits throughout. Not making playoffs for S-tier events in 2020, and then losing to Tier 2 teams from the EU in early 2021 coupled with dead last finishes in 3 events on the trot had them scrambling. Unmotivated players and bad results are never a good mix and it showed.
Jesper “JW” Wecksell was benched from the roster in July 2021 which left ‘KRIMZ’ as the only remaining member of the famed Fnatic roster which one 3 Majors in the early years of CSGO. JW was a crucial part of that roster but his performances had been going downhill for a while and the benching was inevitable.
In-game leader ‘Golden’ was benched as well a few days before JW, as Fnatic went into a rebuilding phase. ‘Jackinho’ had already been added in place of flusha earlier in 2020 but he had role clashes with JW, both of them being AWPers.
Fnatic then signed ex-cloud9 duo Alex ‘ALEX’ McMeekin and William ‘mezii’ Merriman as IGL and rifler respectively. When both of them were signed in August 2021, the roster was #64 in the rankings, well out of the top 30.
Along with them, ex-Complexity coach ‘Keita’ was signed as well in the role of Strategic Coach. The results showed immediately as the roster was put in the toughest group of ESL Pro League Season 14. They defeated Evil Geniuses, FaZe Clan, and BIG in their run and qualified for the playoffs ahead of FaZe Clan and BIG which was no mean feat by any chance.
They did lose to Liquid in the Round of 12 but showed promise in their games and showed that with time, they’ll only improve. They rocketed up to #24 in the HLTV world rankings, and with the last RMR, IEM Fall coming up they’ll even look to vie for a contender spot in the PGL Stockholm Major.
