Thirteen World Championship appearances, one of the most historical League of Legends brand. And yet, in 2026, Fnatic find themselves rebuilding, underperforming, and under fire from a fanbase that feels the LoL section has been deprioritised. RFT.GG sat down with CEO Sam Mathews at the Arènes in Évry-Courcouronnes for a candid conversation about where things stand, what changed, a potential academy team and why leaving League is simply not on the table.
How do you view the evolution of the League of Legends team from a sporting perspective?
It's been a challenging year, for sure. We're going through a bit of a rebuild, trying to find the core pillars of the team to work with and build around. In League of Legends, there's been a lot more competition — KC, MKOI, a lot more teams coming up. More professional outfits, more money coming from different pockets that weren't existing before. And you've also got ecosystems like VALORANT and CS which are really big as well. So there's a lot going on.
Would you say you're focusing more resources on other games like VALORANT and putting less into the LoL team, or are you still finding a middle ground?
League has come from a place where we were spending millions on players — and yes, there has been a reduction in spend because the economics didn't make any sense. With the Perkz era, when there was like multiple millions in salary, we were all hemorrhaging money. We were told by our board, and all the esports teams needed to become more self-sustaining.
