Before the start of the EU's 2017 Summer Split, I was able to catch up with Fnatic's new head coach, Dylan "Dylan" Falco. I got to learn a bit more about his experiences as a coach, what his plans for Fnatic are in the Summer Split, as well as his thoughts on the upcoming Rift Rivals tournament that Fnatic will be participating in.

​ What ultimately led to your decision to coach Fnatic?

"Fnatic has a long history of success in both domestic and international competition, so the opportunity to coach at Fnatic is something that I was initially very interested in. After speaking with members of the team and management, it was clear very quickly that Fnatic was a great fit for me as a coach."





"The areas that they felt were lacking in Spring (structure, productive practice environment, clear planning) were areas that I feel are my strengths as a coach. Fnatic's successful playoffs run in Spring was also a great motivator, and shows that the team has a lot of potential in the coming season."





How’s the move from North America to Europe?

"I've spent a decent amount of time abroad when I was younger, so the move from North America to Europe is pretty natural to me. There are some cultural differences with Europe that I definitely enjoy, Europeans tend to be a lot more honest when trying to problem-solve. I will miss the LA weather though!"





If you were able to give your younger self as an analyst a piece of advice, what would you tell yourself?

"I think a lot of newer analysts still treat footage as entertainment and place too much value on caster storylines and player/pick blaming. Watching muted VoDs, and paying attention to actual map movement/teamplay is the way to avoid being just another twitter analyst, and to put together material that is actually helpful to a team. Presentation skills also matter! Good analysis or data is not helpful if it's not presented well."





You’ve worked with organizations like TSM and now Fnatic. What sets the bigger organizations apart from the smaller ones like Immortals?

"The bigger orgs like TSM and Fnatic simply have a lot more experience, and a lot more infrastructure already set in place. With newer orgs, everything is a first, so there's a lot more room for error, and simply a lot more work to set things up in the first place. I was grateful that with Immortals the coaching/management was incredibly hard-working, so although things might have taken a bit more effort, we didn't fall into traps that a lot of newer orgs do."





What is the one thing that you’ve learned from previous teams that you’ll take with you to Fnatic?

"Simply what the training environment of a top team looks like, the level of effort, preparation, and mindset that the successful teams I’ve been with in the past had."

What kind of trials did you have to go through during the process of joining Fnatic? We heard there was a coaching tryout.

"Most of my coaching tryout was done during the two-week Korean bootcamp in the offseason. I worked with the team during the bootcamp, structuring practice and setting areas of improvement for Summer split. I also had a good amount of time to speak to individual players, and to see if our values and vision for the team aligned. The bootcamp went extremely well, so I'm excited to be on board for Summer!"





What do you bring to Fnatic?

"There are a few strengths that I feel I bring to Fnatic. The first is creating a positive, structured, and disciplined practice environment. When practice is low-quality, it's always a lot harder to fix problems and create cohesive strategies for the stage. This involves scheduling, and working with the players individually to create healthy and productive lifestyles for them."





"The second is leading research and match-review to solve in-game problems. By managing our analysts, talking to players, creating presentations and reviewing footage with players I'll be helping the team to improve their gameplay in game. Third, leading match preparation. Pick and ban is always the collaboration of all players and staff, but I’ll be managing our scouting and overall match preparation process."





What is the biggest hurdle you go through as a coach joining a new team?

"My first head coach position was with Immortals, where there was brand new players, staff, and org. It is a lot easier to create a practice environment when everything is brand new because the players and staff don’t have a default that they’re used to. Coming in the middle of the season with Fnatic, everything needs to be taken slower, as there are a lot of systems/expectations already in place."





The Summer Split will start on Patch 7.10, How does this patch effect your team?

"Patch 7.10 is a great patch for Fnatic! I don’t want to get into the details too much to give away strategies, but I feel that the state of the game going into Summer Split is better for Fnatic than any of the patches that were played during the Spring Split."





In the Spring Split, Fnatic was criticized for not being able to close out games. How do you plan on improving this?

"Usually, the failure to close out games correctly comes from either an unclear plan/understanding of how to play the map mid/late, or a failure to create these situations to practice them during scrims. Reviewing footage, working with the decision makers of the team, and simply some more experience on our younger players will help our understanding. Better practice structure, scrim partners, and discipline will help to actually create these situations during scrims."





Fnatic was recently placed in Group A, what are your thoughts on the teams Fnatic will face?

"As a team, we are playing for first place, so ultimately the group we are in does not mean a huge amount in the long-term. I do feel that with us and G2 in Group A, it is slightly stronger than Group B, as I highly value our form going into Summer."

Happy to announce that I'll be working as Head Coach for @FNATIC, it has been a great experience working with the team so far! — Dylan Falco (@DylanFalcoLoL) May 23, 2017

Fnatic will be attending the new Rift Rivals tournament, do you have any thoughts on the tournament itself?

"I think that the Rift Rivals tournament will be a fun event to showcase some more international competition. I also like that it’s being hosted in Berlin and not LA, so we won’t have to deal with the negatives of travel interrupting our practice."





Do you feel it would benefit teams more to play in Rift Rivals or use the off week to scrim like normal?

"Any opportunity to play against top teams from another region will surely benefit us and let us learn more than playing in the same meta/playstyle that we will be for the rest of the split."





Do you want to say anything to Fnatic fans as they prepare for the start of the Summer Split?

"I want to thank all of the fans for their support and positive messages when I was announced as the new Fnatic head coach, and hope to show them a strong performance from the team in the Summer Split!"

I would like to thank Dylan for taking the time to answer my questions. And I wish him and Fnatic the best of luck in the Summer Split.