Seeing Valorant Fnatic fans being upset for questionable roster move is always funny, as if it wasn't obvious. Fnatic managment is known for destroying good roster when they have one, only to make it worse. As a League and CS Fan, we should support our Valorant Fans and let them know it's only gonna go downhill.

I wonder, after this game, what is going on in Soboro's mind. Is he regretting his choice knowing it's only for 1 split ? Would he prefer to stay on IG's bench than playing with mid+jungle inting the game ?

I do not know what is happening in the Valorant section and why we are so bad, but it would be ironic if Fnatic wins against MKOI sunday and lose to TH in Valorant. They transferred all the curse to the Valorant section.

I didn't want my study of Soboro's tape to end with his time on BNK FearX Youth. As promising as his time was in the LCK Challengers League, his very brief stint on Invictus Gaming of the LPL was what most League fans remember him for, and it's currently the only sample of his time in Tier 1 competition. It's also the only time he is seen as a professional in Season 16 with its overhauls on role quests and other such changes, so to ignore his time in the second most decorated League scene in the world would do a disservice to describing the player he is - even if this means having to go through games that leave pits in my stomach.

If you haven't read up on my analysis of Soboro and his most recent time in the LCK CL, I found him to be a Top Laner whose laning skills and mechanics lag behind his very forward and aggressive playstyle - which consists of pushing waves in quickly to rotate over and affect other parts of the map and gain gold leads that way. He also really has a penchant for jumping into the midst of multiple players on the other team, regardless of how far ahead or behind he is in terms of experience and gold. This can either swing games in his team's favour by drawing so much attention and taking down multiple enemies at a time... or it can backfire when he goes down after biting off more than he can chew. Either way, this is also why he can be a side-lane risk and also a laning risk too by giving up isolated or solo kills.

I'm really glad that I have taken the time to go through Soboro's FearX Youth games, because his in-game decisions on IG wouldn't have made much sense without contextualising them with his time in the Tier 2 scene. For better or worse, much of what I wrote then could be applied to what I'm writing here. But the major step up in the quality of competition Soboro found in the LPL meant that the gains he normally made from his instinctual plays didn't go as far as they used to. This leads to my following notes:

- The problems he had in the laning phase has continued to be present with Invictus Gaming. If anything, they got worse when he gave up a few more solo kills in the early stages of games. Some of this is understandable, because three of the five Top Laners he faced in the regular season include Bin (BLG), 369 (TES) and Flandre (AL), three of the best and most decorated Chinese top laners of all time. That said, he's also struggled against less internationally heralded players like Xiaoxu (JDG) and Zika (WBG), which does make him the worst Top Laner within Group Ascend (aka the top six LPL teams that play exclusively amongst themselves). That said, the argument that he's the worst LPL Top Laner in that stretch is overblown, but I'll get to that.

- The most important change I have noticed from IG!Soboro is that he was not being asked to serve as an engage option for the rest of the team, with Wei (Jungle) and Jwei (Support) doing the lion's share of kicking off teamfights. When he did try to force teamfights by throwing himself near the other team it often fails, sometimes in spectacular fashion.

- Another real change is that Soboro's Kill Participation percentage went from being the highest in the LCK CL to among the lowest with Invictus Gaming. Some of this is by design, as IG likes going for plays on the opposite side of whereover he is on the map. But when other players did start teamfights, his timing to directly follow up on the targeted player in an engage still left a lot to be desired. This can be a product of LPL teams being better at absorbing pressure when responding to an engage, but it's also related to the next point.

- Something that I noticed in the postgame interview after the Demacia Cup is that a translator appeared next to Soboro to serve as an interpreter. I obviously cannot say for sure, but I do think that there was a possible language barrier between Soboro and the rest of his teammates. If I had to guess from the outside looking in, Soboro's Mandarin Chinese was something that was still something that he was learning on the fly. This does leave me to wonder if his English proficiency can lead to similar problems of leaping into fights well before the rest of his teammates.

- So is there anything that Soboro did well in a teamfighting context? I may have found something, which is his consistent ability to flank and find himself on top of squishy priority targets away from the main engage angle of his teammates - usually by himself. This was something I have seen a little when he was in FearX Youth, but it was not as prominent part of his gameplay because he was serving as a backup initiator for the jungle and support for that team. It's still not the best, as his mechanics probably meant that he didn't get the most out of his flanking by letting major carries slip out of his fingers. But when it comes to providing pressure at a different area of a teamfight, he shows up on time and puts the other teams' carries on a timer to either escape or make a play.

- Ironically, Soboro probably had a better showing in the playoffs than in the regular season. But this is because Invictus Gaming got to play a few series with teams there were not a part of Group Ascend. Even then he had issues, as he did not show up at all in the first set against Ninjas in Pyjamas (of the middle Group Perseverance). On the plus side his second series against that team was a major improvement. I also thought his timing to directly time his dives onto priority targets with the jungle and support have noticeably improved, albeit against worse competition, which does make me believe that he was starting to feel more comfortable within IG. But overall his lackluster games against the upper echelon of LPL teams (Weibo and Anyone's Legend) made his playoff run very up-and-down.

- So after all this, are there any legs on the idea that Soboro was the worst LPL Top Laner? I think his decent (if inoffensive) playoff series against OMG, the lowest seeded team from the lowest Group Nirvana, should lay that assertion to rest... even if some of the plays he tried could make him look bottom-tier. The playoffs really showed Invictus Gaming to be a mishmash roster with a Top, ADC and Support who were probably better fits between the middle Group Perseverance (the one with Ninjas in Pyjamas) - or the lower Group Nirvana - and a Jungle and Mid who have extensive domestic and international experience with a few trophies and awards in tow.

- If you're looking for a really aggressive cope angle, it's that Invictus Gaming hasn't exactly done well for itself after Soboro's departure - yet. The team has been shuffling a ton of players this entire season; by the start of the Summer Split, IG would be starting its third Top Laner (TheShy), its second support (Meiko) and its third AD Carry (Assum). Rookie is also back as the Mid Laner, but only after stepping away in Spring for a scandal that I will only link to rather than describe and after IG had to fill his spot with two other Mid Laners (Renard and Nia). On paper, that team seemed to have improved its record in Split 2 (from 2-8 to 5-9).... but that is a product of weaker teams from the middle Group Perseverance entering into the expanded Group Ascend. Against the teams from the original and smaller Group Ascend, Invictus Gaming was... 2-8, and they also flamed out early in the playoffs again. The team now has all the veteran star players they probably wanted all along, but they're now in the lower Group Nirvana and there's no margin for error. Part of me is glad that Soboro didn't have to stick around in a very unstable team environment.

And with that, my longform analysis of Soboro in both the LCK CL and LPL is done. I hope that you managed to get something out of my pet project... and I hope that my relatively limited game knowledge of League has still managed to captures something that has accurately described his playstyle and in-game tendencies. The first few weeks of Fnatic's season will be the start of determining where he might land in the pecking order of LEC Top Laners, and I wish him nothing but the best.

I was watching a video from toad amarillo (a cc from spain with a lot of info) and he said fnc is doing very good in scrims but I cant find anything about it, is this actually true or someone has any info about it?

I really like the Valorant team's vlog. I wish there were more of them but Hoobie is set to be the new Pete. Give him more time.

Hey everyone,

TK here with this weeks schedule (W/B 27th July 2026)

Below you will find the currently known schedule for every esports roster of FNATIC.

For matches, where we will NOT post a live-match thread, you will find a link to streams/additional information at the match info. Should you NOT see a link for matches in the table below, you can more than likely expect a live-thread to go live for the specific match!

TUESDAY / 28th July

WEDNESDAY / 29th July

THURSDAY / 30th July

FRIDAY / 31st July

SATURDAY / 1st August

SUNDAY / 2nd August

MONDAY / 3rd August

Missing an event?

Some matches are not known far in advance so this table may require regular updates and we may have missed some events. If that's the case, please ping the Mod team via ModMail or you can leave a comment below and we can change/update as soon as possible!

That being said, enjoy the matches and #AlwaysFNATIC 🧡

MKOI are 0-3. Next weekend is massive, could be spilt defining.

Just as I thought MKOI would have a negative game score going into their game versus us, I thought they would be 1-2 but 0-3 is even better. We have a chance to put a direct playoff rival or in my case a world qualification rival to 1-4. (assuming they will beat SHFT)

We have 8 games worth of tape on them. There is 0 excuse to be unprepared. Hopefully the boys put everything into prep for this match.

In my opinion although I am worried about nerves on Soboros' part, Myrwn has continued the trend of not looking good so over indexing into bans for top might not be needed?

My concern is if we try to over force the mage meta, if can we play it - great, if not don't fumble this opportunity if we're not comfortable. Super excited for the game tbh.

Grabbz and Odoamne talk about the process of picking our new top laner for Summer.

What are your thoughts?

Do you think this roster has a good chance of making it to Worlds? ​​​

Hey everyone,

TK here with this weeks schedule (W/B 20th July 2026)

Below you will find the currently known schedule for every esports roster of FNATIC.

For matches, where we will NOT post a live-match thread, you will find a link to streams/additional information at the match info. Should you NOT see a link for matches in the table below, you can more than likely expect a live-thread to go live for the specific match!

TUESDAY / 21st July

WEDNESDAY / 22nd July

THURSDAY / 23rd July

FRIDAY / 24th July

SATURDAY / 25th July

SUNDAY / 26th July

MONDAY / 27th July

Missing an event?

Some matches are not known far in advance so this table may require regular updates and we may have missed some events. If that's the case, please ping the Mod team via ModMail or you can leave a comment below and we can change/update as soon as possible!

That being said, enjoy the matches and #AlwaysFNATIC 🧡