Suffering a choking defeat at the hands of SK Gaming, Fnatic must now shake off this uncharacteristic performance and regain momentum as they prepare to face Karmine Corp in Week 2 of the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) Spring Season. To shed some light on their recent issues, Fabian "GrabbZ" Lohmann, head coach of the team, sat down with Sheep Esports in an exclusive interview to discuss the team's energy, Humanoid's performances, the signing of assistant coach Duffman, and more.

How would you summarize this week's results, especially after losing 0-2 against SK Gaming?

Fabian "GrabbZ" Lohmann: "Our week was really bad. Even in our 2-0 win over GIANTX, the second game wasn’t up to our standards. The team and I are really disappointed—rightfully so. Hopefully, this turns into some anger because we can’t talk about winning the championship and then perform like this. No disrespect to SK, but if you want to be the best team in Europe, you have to beat them. Right now, we’re far from that.

What do you think is missing right now? Are there lingering issues from the previous split, especially after the long break since Winter? What do you need to work on?

GrabbZ: I mean, take the first game today—Naafiri is usually a permaban, but they left it open, so we just picked it as a classic OP champ. Then we built a comp with champions we thought were good, but that ended badly. For example, in isolation, Galio is good into Rumble, but we needed more AP in that comp. With three AD damage dealers, they just bought Plated Steelcaps, and suddenly, we had no damage. These things should be obvious, but since we never really got into that situation before, we just didn’t think it through. That’s on me.

In the second game, I think the biggest issue was energy—it felt "blutleer," as we say in German, meaning bloodless, like there was no life in it. It didn’t feel like a real stage day. Not because we didn’t respect SK, but the atmosphere just felt off. I also think the coaching staff, including myself, didn’t do a good job getting the team into “officials mode.” The BDS versus Rogue series before us was long, and we should have done more to help the players refocus.

In-game, the communication was low energy—nothing in the head, basically. Everything we tell them can go wrong in scrims when they’re not focused happened today. We lost 2-0, and it was shameful. But honestly, I’d rather lose like this now, get memed for it, and use it as a wake-up call instead of cruising through the regular season thinking everything’s fine and not making the improvements we need. That was disgusting from us. We messed up today—now we move forward.

How do you fix these issues with low energy coming into a match? It seems like something hard to control, but you need to find a way to prevent it from happening again. What steps do you take from here?

GrabbZ: A lot of it comes down to subconscious signals you send yourself. It starts with how we approach the week. I think it’s fair to say that, based on the previous split, you’d assume GIANTX is a stronger opponent than SK. Even if no one explicitly says SK is easier, if you subconsciously think that way and you’re already 1-0, you start letting your guard down a bit.

We need a more structured approach and a plan for situations like today—like when the series before ours goes to three games. Even small things, like when to take caffeine or Red Bull, can make a difference. It’s something we can improve on, and this is a learning experience in that regard.

You’ll need to bounce back quickly since you’re facing Karmine Corp next week, a big opponent and a rival from last split. What are you expecting from that match, and what’s the plan to beat them?

GrabbZ: It’ll be interesting to see how Gwen and Naafiri’s power levels play out with upcoming nerfs. They were banning the both of them against Movistar KOI, which I attribute to their break after First Stand, they probably thought it was safer to just ban them out since they weren't in the meta back in Korea. In practice, Naafiri is usually a permaban, so both teams will likely have a plan around these two champions—figuring out when they’re strong and when they’re not.

I think both teams are excited for the match. Especially after today’s loss, we want to prove we’re actually a good team because, right now, it’s hard to put ourselves in that conversation. But our practice before this week was decent, so I think it’ll be a close match, and we’re looking forward to it.

Speaking of practice and team performance, Humanoid (Marek Brázda) has received a lot of criticism, with some saying he doesn’t practice enough or put in the work. You recently defended him publicly. How has it been working with him lately?

GrabbZ: He had a really bad day, and he knows it. He doesn’t shy away from that or pretend he played well—he’s his own biggest critic. He works just like anybody else. The narrative about him not practicing enough comes from four or five years ago, even when he joked about Tomorrowland himself. But he’s a very smart player and puts in the same effort as everyone else. I’m not going to sit here and say he does more than others, but I do wish he could communicate his thoughts on the game more clearly—it’s not something that comes naturally to him.

Besides that, he’s like any other player on this team: he wants to win. Putting this loss on him is unfair. But, of course, he’s a star player—next to Mikyx, he’s the only one on this team who’s won a championship—so he’s always going to be in the spotlight. He knows that. But connecting today’s performance to his effort? That’s just nonsense. If he plays badly, say he played badly—that’s fine. But saying he played badly because he doesn’t care or doesn’t put in effort? That’s just a cheap narrative that needs to die.

One positive for Fnatic recently is the addition of Duffman (Christopher Duff) to the coaching staff. You’ve worked with him before at BDS and G2. How has integrating him into Fnatic been, and how is he helping the players?

GrabbZ: Integration has been pretty easy. Even though it might seem like this happened quickly, discussions about coaching staff changes have been going on for a while—this wasn’t a last-minute decision. Duffman commands respect. He has the experience, and he brings a fresh perspective to certain issues that Gaax and I have been working on. We see the game the same way, but the way we approach discussions or present ideas can be different. He tends to come from a more positive angle, whereas Gaax and I are perfectionists and can be a bit negative at times.

So is it a good cop, bad cop dynamic?

GrabbZ: It was that way at G2 and BDS, I’d say. But now, it’s a bit different—I’ve gotten better at not being such a Debbie Downer, and he’s gotten a bit more serious. We still complement each other, but it’s not as cartoonish. That said, he’s really good at identifying patterns and making sure players understand them… though, of course, we didn’t show that today. The only pattern today was that we played badly.

With the removal of lane swaps, did it change anything about your prep for the split? And does playing without lane swaps affect Fnatic’s identity?

GrabbZ: Not at all. Every player on this team wants to lane—they see themselves as strong laners—so they’re actually happy with no lane swaps. The only big difference is the top lane champion pool. In the past, there were certain picks you just couldn’t take because if the enemy swapped on you, the game was over. Now, that’s opened up a bit. But beyond that, it hasn’t really changed how we approach the game.

Despite today's loss, who do you think will be the top four teams in the LEC? We've seen a lot of shifts, with KC and G2 looking strong, Fnatic still considered a top team, and KOI going 0-2 but taking KC and G2 to three games. How do you see the standings shaping up in the next few weeks?

GrabbZ: I don’t see a reason why the top three—KC, G2, and us—should change. So far, practice has shown that we stand out as a core group. KOI is always interesting because on a given day, they can beat any of the top teams, but I don’t think they can do so consistently. In playoffs, they could take down any of us, but winning a title would mean beating three teams in a row like that, which is much harder.

As for Vitality, we haven’t scrimmed them much, but we’ve heard some rumors. With Nisqy as support, they could be a team that challenges for a top spot, especially if the top three can’t handle the aggression they bring. Right now, we have five teams that can be good. But honestly, after today, we’re probably fifth—because after that performance, we don’t deserve to be in any conversation. It was disgusting. Hopefully, we can show a different face next week.

Any last message for the fans?

GrabbZ: Thanks for the support. And shoutout to the KOI fans, I was laughing a lot when they lost yesterday, but now they can laugh. That’s part of the sport, right? I’ll have to take that one for next week on social media—should be fun. But as usual, thanks to Fnatic fans. I know they’re worried right now, but you can trust that we’re really aware of how bad today was, and we’re going to work on it. I hope this is the last time we have a performance this abysmal this year. It was something else, for sure.

Thank you for your time! Try to get some rest, and don't be too hard on the players.

GrabbZ: I make no promises."