On Nov. 18, 2020, Fnatic published an emotional video informing fans that renowned bot laner Martin “Rekkles” Larsson signed with another team after playing in the black and orange jersey for almost six years. He would then join G2 Esports in what arguably was the most promising roster Europe ever produced.
But that dream shattered in 2021 as G2 lost reaching the LEC finals twice in a row after years of dominion in the region. Fans largely attributed their fall from grace to the team’s lack of cohesion both in and out of the game, which led G2 to hold extensive tryouts for several roles at the end of the year, including for bot lane. Less than 12 months on the team, Rekkles left G2 with an uncertain future ahead of him.
After joining the French ERL and conquering the EUM title in 2022, Rekkles returned to the EMEA region’s highest league with Fnatic. But the team failed to adapt quickly enough to the new LEC format, and during the first split of the year, they exited the competition after only three weeks. In an emotional video on his YouTube channel on Feb. 28, Rekkles opened up about the problems he and Fnatic faced during the LEC’s first Winter Split, and he later told Dot Esports that doing so made “a world of difference” for him.
“In the past I was always the quiet guy, just letting things be as they are and letting narratives become whatever they wanted to become,” Rekkles told Dot. “I just never interfered with anything and I really feel like I learned from my time in G2, especially that talking can be good at times. I put that to the test at the end of last year when I opened up about my contract situation in G2 and how all of that ended up.”
He said opening up to his community to “just let it all out” and let people see him cry or laugh helped him move on from those negative experiences. “I’m keeping everything to myself and sometimes I see these narratives which are just… It feels like I might as well just say my piece and then if people like it or not like it, that’s up to them.”
After his heartfelt video, Rekkles said he felt he could leave behind the Winter Split and focus on the spring, and he had a “much better time” because of it and the new team environment. The bot laner said this Fnatic roster feels more like a team compared to the Winter Split one, where they were “desynchronized,” both in how the team wanted to play and in the players’ day-to-day behavior outside the game.
This Spring Split, however, making sure “everyone feels included, cared for, and heard” became a focal point for Fnatic—and Rekkles feels it made a big difference from the start of the split to the end.
Although the veteran player admitted Fnatic has some in-game issues, he believes the experience has been positive otherwise. For this season, Rekkles hopes to solve “whatever [they] need to figure out on the Rift” while keeping the feeling of camaraderie the team have built up in less than a month.
Despite the various in-game issues, Fnatic’s latest results in the LEC show the team evolved and grew in a very short time between the Winter and Spring Split. But according to Rekkles, a major factor in Fnatic’s poor results is because of the stage.
“We had a good few weeks of winning basically every scrim, and then suddenly losing on stage,” the bot laner said. “You can definitely see that on stage we’re not exactly the same team as we are in scrims. Well, I guess people can’t really see that, but people can see [the difference in] our official games from home when we’ve been playing from the office and the ones on stage. And to me, there’s still too much difference between the two.
“To me, League of Legends has kind of become a game where whoever engages first usually wins cause it’s quite easy to one-shot someone,” Rekkles said, adding how he believes he and his team can hesitate when going after plays on stage.
He underlined that he does not believe this to be an individual issue, but the whole team is more cautious to make the first move when on stage, and that brief moment of hesitation would sometimes cost them the right timing to make a play. The Swedish ADC continued by saying his hopes for this Fnatic roster are to become a team who can play with more confidence on stage, something he believes will help them reach the next level.
Rekkles said it was a “shame” Fnatic failed to go further into the competition, since the journey they went on brought out “a lot of good things” from each member of the team and even helped reveal a new side of Rekkles himself. After more than 10 years of being a pro player, he changed from being someone who focused just on League and didn’t say much or help anyone outside of the game, to the complete opposite. “[At the time] I was just playing my game, and nowadays maybe it’s everything but that. I can see how I’ve changed in, well, terms I’m helping my team,” he said.
But Rekkles’ goal resides beyond being a good teammate, and beyond winning again. “The grand goal for me is to do this for as long as possible,” Rekkles said. “Contribute as much as I can from year to year, because that’s gonna be different, and from roster to roster. And I just have to do whatever I can to help.”
According to the veteran player, it’s just a matter of time before he and his teammates maximize their potential on the Rift. “I have the level to be in the LEC,” Rekkles said, pointing to Worlds 2018 and 2019 to describe his true potential when he’s operating at 100 percent.
“I just wanna keep going for as long as I can, try to do as good as I can, and if I ever feel like I don’t live up anymore to the standards you need to meet to be at this level, then I will call it,” he said. “But I still think I am more than good enough to be in the LEC.”
Rekkles and Fnatic will return to the Rift in June when the LEC Summer Split kicks off.
