fnatic part ways with keita

Soon after their early Major exit, fnatic have made a significant change.

keita was fnatic's Head Coach for over three years

fnatic have announced that they are parting ways Jamie "⁠keita⁠" Hall, ending a partnership that lasted over three years. The news comes soon after fnatic's dismal Major campaign, where they exited the Opening Stage after three straight losses.

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"I want to express my appreciation to all the staff and players I've had the privilege of working with over the past three years," keita stated after the announcement. "I am currently open to all coaching offers as I evaluate my future. Excited for what's next, DMs open."

keita had been at the helm of fnatic since August 2021, when he joined the team not long after departing Complexity as part of a revamp that saw the benching of Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell and Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim and the arrival of William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman and Alex "⁠ALEX⁠" McMeekin.

The British coach enjoyed some modest success with fnatic in the first half of his tenure, such as winning DreamHack Open November 2021 and Esports Masters Espoo 2022, and he guided fnatic to three Major campaigns, earning a top-eight finish at IEM Rio Major 2022. His efforts saw fnatic hit a peak ranking of No. 9 early in 2023.

In the latter years of keita's reign results began to slide amidst a revolving door of playing staff, with 20 players in total featuring for fnatic during the Brit's tenure. The team began to regularly fail to make playoff appearances at Big Events and consistently slipped down the world rankings, eventually to outside the top 20.

keita's last outing with fnatic came in the Perfect World Shanghai Major cycle. The team scraped through their RMR via narrow wins over BetBoom and ECLOT, before bombing out of the Opening Stage with straight losses to Wildcard, Cloud9 and the lowest-ranked team in attendance, Rare Atom.

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cArn: "There's a lot of exciting talent out there, so hopefully fnatic can build something stronger"

Following their Major run, fnatic's Chief Gaming Officer Patrik "⁠cArn⁠" Sättermon hinted at changes in their coaching staff in an interview posted to the organization's X account, saying the team was "coming to a bit of an end station now in the current shape and form of our structure." He also suggested player changes would be coming.

fnatic are now:

Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson
Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro
Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson
Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer
Matúš "⁠MATYS⁠" Šimko