It's no secret that Western teams tend to flounder at the League of Legends World Championship, something we saw once again with this year's event where only the League of Legends Championship Series FlyQuest made it to the Knockout Stage, with every League of Legends EMEA Championship side failing to make it that far. These struggles don't stop Western teams from attempting to reach the mountaintop however, and in a bid to do so in the 2025 season, Fnatic has made a coaching change.
The British esports organisation has revealed that head coach Tomáš "Nightshare" Kněžínek has been released from his duties at the team. His tenure at Fnatic was filled with ups and downs, with an LEC Spring victory under his belt and several runner-up results too.
Speaking about the decision to explore other coaching opportunities, Fnatic stated: "Tomáš joined Fnatic at a low point in our history after an extremely poor 9th place finish in the 2023 Winter Split, and we are incredibly proud of his efforts in turning around our 2023 season to secure a place at Worlds, as well as leading us to 3 LEC split finals in 2024.
"Unfortunately, we have not managed to take that final step to secure an LEC trophy, and following the conclusion of our 2024 Worlds run, we believe it is time for a fresh approach with someone new at the helm, in conjunction with other staffing changes planned for our Berlin operations which we are excited to share with you over the coming weeks."
It's unclear who Fnatic is eyeing as Nightshade's replacement.