Fnatic’s legendary bot laner will be returning home after a two-year break.
When people say AD Carry in Europe, most of the fans immediately think of Carl Martin Erik “Rekkles” Larsson. And when people said Rekkles, many used to think about Fnatic. But after spending five years with the organization and reaching impressive highs, Rekkles had left the team in November 2020, and joined G2 with the hopes of Worlds success. Unfortunately for the veteran ADC, things didn’t pan out as he wished and he had to spend 2022 in LFL.
But after showing everyone he still had what it takes, and more importantly without a restrictive buyout clause, it was rumored Rekkles would make his return to Europe’s premier stage. And after month-long speculation, the news broke today. According to the reporting of Brieuc “LEC Wooloo” Seeger, Rekkles will be joining Fnatic as their ADC for the 2023 LEC season.
[Sources] Bot laner Rekkles 🇸🇪 will return to Fnatic as ad carry (real) pic.twitter.com/4gFDBrUOZM
— LEC Wooloo 🇪🇺 (@LEC_Wooloo) November 8, 2022
Hard couple of years after Fnatic
While Rekkles left Fnatic and joined G2 with the hopes of a Worlds triumph, it wasn’t in the cards. G2 managed to top LEC in Spring 2021, and he won the MVP award, but that was the peak of the season. After their semifinals defeat to Rogue in Spring Playoffs, G2 had a much slower start to Summer. They still had a good record, but the roster’s individual performances were heavily criticized, except for Rekkles who was the best player on the team. G2 failed even to make Worlds after they collapsed in the playoffs, which led to Rekkles’ benching and eventual transfer to LFL’s Karmine Corp.
The Swedish ADC transfer saga was controversial during the 2022 off-season, and he recently talked about his situation during a Worlds live-view stream. Rekkles touched on his regrets about leaving Fnatic and how G2 mishandled his situation. On the stream, Rekkles complained about G2 not giving him an opportunity to fight for his starting spot, as his benching would mean his salary would go down to a league minimum €75K. G2 also set a very high buyout, and “…only lowered it once every other LEC team signed an AD Carry.”
This situation was actually very close to repeating this year as well. With many high-profile ADCs on the market, there were rumors that Rekkles wouldn’t be able to find a spot. He even thought about a Zven-like role swap to support, which Wooloo also reported and Rekkles confirmed on his stream.
But there is a bittersweetness to Rekkles’ return to Fnatic. It was reported last week that his long-time bot lane partner on Fnatic, Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov was leaving the team. His new support will be the Fnatic TQ’s Rúben “Rhuckz” Barbosa, who subbed in for Hylissang during Worlds 2022 and impressed in his two-game sample.
