Following their opening win of the season — a 2-0 victory over Team Vitality in the VCT EMEA Kickoff, Lee Jones spoke with FNC’s head coach Chris “Elmapuddy” Tebbit.
After a dominant year (2023) in which the team were widely regarded as the world’s best team, Fnatic’s head coach mini gave up his role in search of a healthier work-life balance. His subsequent return as assistant coach will now see him working under the new leader tasked with continuing Fnatic’s success into 2024.
Here are his expectations for the season.
Esports.net: It must be good to start the season with a win, but did you expect map one to be so close?
Elmapuddy: We expected it to be a little cleaner than that, obviously. I think we had a couple of rounds we probably should have won. We made a couple of mistakes in there that I think cost us a few rounds early on as well. So I think just cleaning up, making sure the boys know what they’re doing on every single round because we just started a couple of rounds out of position, which actually did cost us a few.
I think with Lotus obviously the comp hasn’t changed from last year, but there’s been a few changes I’ve wanted to make to how we play it. And I think that there’s still this thing where the guys played so much last year that they sometimes default to what they were doing last year rather than the new adapted system.
Lee Jones: Speaking of tactical changes – you’ve just joined what’s widely regarded as the world’s best team.
Is there a tricky balance between not wanting to make too many changes to what’s already been working whilst also wanting to make your mark on the team?
Elmapuddy: They have a really good base system in place already and mini is still on the team, so he’s a great resource as far as making sure that all the good things they were doing are in place.
But I’ve got to put my spin on it. I think that one thing that is big, and everyone knows, is you can be the best team in the world but you have to keep moving forward otherwise someone’s going to catch and overtake you. So I think what I’m trying to do is put a little bit of my spin on the team while keeping all the great stuff that mini’s put in place and Boaster’s put in place over the years and just try and keep the team moving forward,
So it’s just about always moving forward, making sure the team’s moving forward, staying on top, because that’s even harder than getting to the top.
Credit: X | @fnatic
What’s the dynamic been with mini staying on as assistant coach? Do you ever feel like a bit of a third wheel in discussions with him and Boaster?
Elmapuddy: Um.. a little bit. Mini’s actually been really good. As everyone knows, he stepped down because he wants a better work-life balance and coaching an esports team you don’t really get a great amount of that. So obviously his goal of stepping down was to take a few less hours.
When we get to those points where we need to really nut out some details, it is me and Boaster doing it. Mini obviously gives his opinions, he gives his thoughts on things, which of course are incredibly valuable. But at the end of the day, he did step down for a reason and us making him work 12 hours with us all the way through that, it’s just not fair on what he wanted to do. So I think
I have to give a lot of credit to mini. He’s very supportive, but he’s also making sure that I am the head coach and that I’m working with Boaster. So I think I have to give a lot of credit to mini for helping facilitate that and making it a very smooth transition.
Did you have any other offers over the off season you considered, or was it a no-brainer once Fnatic was involved?
There were other options, but when Fnatic say “you want to coach this team?” – it is a no-brainer. It’s a little bit of, I don’t want to say ‘poison chalice’, but it’s one of those ones where you’re already at the top when you join the team, and if you keep the team doing what they’re doing or you drop off a little bit then you probably get the blame for it because you’re the new piece.
But I think it’s one of those things where it’s just a no-brainer. You have these incredible players and I think every coach just wants the pieces to be able to do what they want to do and win trophies. I think Fnatic has the best pieces, great organization as well, so once the offer came around it was just a no-brainer.
Lee Jones: Boaster mentioned on the broadcast that the goal this year is to win all three global events.
How do you operate in that environment where winning everything is the only success?
I think it depends on the manner in which that doesn’t happen if it doesn’t happen. I think it’s difficult to plan for because if something just happens and you don’t win a trophy then obviously you didn’t reach your goal, but it’s important to take things in context. So I think that’s one of those ones where you just have to kind of see — if and when it happens — what’s the response?
The ultimate goal is of course Champions, this team won every trophy except Champions last year. So there’s been a lot of talk about keeping the team consistent and actually building up so we’re peaking at the end of the year rather than peaking a little bit earlier in the year. It’s definitely a balancing act that myself and the performance coaches at Fnatic have to work out – keeping the team at a high level and peaking when it matters to win all these three trophies. And then also keeping ourselves fresh and feeling good for Champions, because obviously that’s the big one.
I think if you ask the team at the end of the year, let’s say we don’t win Madrid or Shanghai, then we win Champions, we wouldn’t have reached our goal but I think everyone would still be feeling pretty good about it.
But the goal is to win all three because the pieces on this team are incredible.
And I think it’s very special, even if some of the players don’t realize it, to have this team together. There’s so many incredible players out there, but to have them all on the same team is almost like a once-in-a-career opportunity, maybe twice if you’re lucky. So it’s just something we have to grab with both hands and win all three trophies.
That’s the goal.
Deixar um comentário