It’s a new year and it’s a new era for League of Legends. As the EU LCS chapter ends, paving the way for the rebranded LEC, we look to replicate the dominance we held over Europe during the last five years.

The man who won the last six EU LCS Splits ever, Joey ‘YoungBuck’ Steltenpool arrived at Fnatic as Team Director with unprecedented success as a Head Coach. He now returns to a Head Coach role with former Fnatic Heroes of the Storm and Paladins manager, Jan ‘Careion’ Hoffmann moving into the directorial role.

Joey spoke about the move and why we chose the coaching direction we have for LEC in 2019:

Hello Fnatic fans!

Instead of the common announcements, I would like to take you through the thought process behind our coaching staff decisions for 2019.

The first decision to make, of course, was to decide on who was to become responsible for on-stage drafts and therefore become our head coach for the year. Considering that I have personally always had a love for drafting even since my days as a player - as well as coming into the year knowing the majority of the players of this year’s line-up on an in-game level - we thought it made a lot of sense to move myself into the Head Coach position, a position I held before I joined Fnatic.

When reviewing what we could improve on, the most important factor in hiring an assistant coach was being able to teach the players new macro-game concepts. With Dylan having spent two years with the team and myself having spent one year here, we felt it a necessity to bring in new blood with different perspectives. It’s always important to keep stimulating the growth we go through as a team.

In the hiring process, I therefore asked multiple people to teach me something new. The person we chose ended up teaching me multiple new concepts in a short amount of time and left the competition far behind him as a result of that.

We can thus introduce Louis-Victor ‘Mephisto’ Legendre as our assistant coach. He had the following to say about working with Fnatic in the upcoming year:

“I'm so fired up to join Fnatic, a legendary organisation, and to become the right hand of Europe's Six Star General. It’s almost dreamlike for me, but my goals for the team and each individual are very real. Let’s figure out how good we can be, and lets get it done. We are #crowningkings.” - Louis-Victor ‘Mephisto’ Legendre, Fnatic League of Legends Assistant Coach

We have also hired a new Head Analyst, Samir ‘Gegemont’ Mamedau. Differently to last year, we will be bringing our Head Analyst on-site with the team as we’ve discovered that the impact a Head Analyst can have when face-to-face with the staff and players increases a lot.

Samir will be leading data collection and the scouting of opponents in his role as Head Analyst. Samir said the following on his arrival:

“It is a great honor to work for Fnatic and I'm very excited for what this season holds for us. Fnatic had a great performance last year, but in Season 9 all teams have a fresh start and only through the true commitment and passion we can make Europe proud once again.” - Samir ‘Gegemont’ Mamedau, Fnatic League of Legends Head Analyst

Moving into my former role of Team Director is Jan “Careion” Hoffmann, who has worked at Fnatic in various games for over three years and has shown an increasing propensity for creating great processes in every manner of esports and life for the team and the organisation. Helping Jan will be our new Assistant Team Manager, Jeremias Knehr.

Jan wrote further about his change in role and joining us in Berlin:

“2018 was a good year for me personally. I need to say a thank you to Patrik and Wouter for trusting me, believing in me and for pushing me in the right direction. The teams I was mainly responsible for during the past three years at Fnatic are now gone, but I’m now happy to be taking over operations and leading processes for more than just the games I was involved in.

Part of that is to become the Team Director for League of Legends. Nothing is better to learn more and grow further than accepting this position to work in the biggest esport title of them all. I am looking forward to work with our players and help them as best as I can to take the next step in their own career and hopefully repeat and build on the success our roster already had in 2018.” - Jan ‘Careion’ Hoffmann, Fnatic League of Legends Team Director

2018 was an incredible year for us as a team and we hope you all remember it fondly. But we now move into 2019 fresher and always hungry to learn more, play more and win more. We are #ALWAYSFNATIC.

Joey ‘YoungBuck’ Steltenpool, Fnatic League of Legends Head Coach

Full League of Legends Management:

Team Director: Jan ‘Careion’ Hoffmann

Head Coach: Joey ‘YoungBuck’ Steltenpool

Assistant Coach: Louis-Victor ‘Mephisto’ Legendre

Head Analyst: Samir ‘Gegemont’ Mamedau

Assistant Team Manager: Jeremias Knehr

LEC begins on 18th January and we cannot wait to be back.