After initially not living up to the high expectations, Fnatic chose to bench the support Lewis ”Noxiak” Felix. The choice of replacement was the, in competitive play, completely untested swede Johan “Klaj” Olsson.
– Of course I feel a lot of pressure coming to a team like Fnatic, he says to Aftonbladet esport.

Within league of legends Fnatic are known for successful acquisitions of untested players, not least in the last split with Seong ”Huni” Hoon Heo, Kim ”Reignover” Ui-jin and Fabian “Febiven” Diepstraten. But after losing Bora ”YellowStar” Kim to Team SoloMid, the team has still not been able to find a worthy replacement. Klaj is now hoping to become the new Yellowstar.
– It is tough to replace Yellowstar, he is truly a legend. But I get a lot of help from the team, and I actually believe that I, one day, will reach Yellowstars level or even surpass it.

The main reason for the acquisition of Klaj is spelled Martin ”Rekkles” Larsson. And when Fnatic showed their interest, there was little doubt in Klajs mind.
– There was an interest from several LCS-teams. Both Rekkles and Jesper ”Zven” Svenningsen had talked about me, and Rekkles wanted me as support. We have known about each other for a couple years, but never really played together.

”Things haven’t gone as they wanted”

With Lewis ”Noxiak” Felix on the team, Fnatic did not live up to the expectations. Klaj believes this might have happened due to internal struggles.
– Things haven’t gone as they wanted. Lee ”Spirit” Da-yoon has not reached the level he once had, which I think is due to him and Noxiak not really connecting. But it feels better now, there is a good mood within the team.

Rekkles has previously said that the role as shotcaller is a hindrance to his individual play. The team is hoping that Klaj in the long term will be able to ease the burden on his AD-carry.
– Rekkles still does a lot of the shotcalling, but I try to take more responsibility there. It’s something we are working on, slowly but surely.

Being the first all-Swedish botlane in LCS-history is something Klaj believes could be an advantage in the heat of battle.
– Communication that is just about our lane is in Swedish, but mostly we talk English.
We are working on our synergy in the botlane, I’m an aggressive playmaker while Rekkles is more passive. It’s hard to judge our strength as a duo, but there is a gap between us and Jesper ”Zven” Svenningsen and Alfonso ”Mithy” Aguirre Rodriguez, who in my opinion is the strongest duo in Europe. I also have a lot of respect for Petter ”Hjärnan” Freyschuss and Raymond ”kaSing” Tsang.

”Sweden is top three”

With nine of them, there is now more Swedish LCS-players than ever before. At the support position Klaj is joined by Oskar ”G0DFRED” Lundström and Hampus ”Sprattel” Abrahamsson.
– I know both of them from before LCS, we have played together so there is a friendly rivalry between us. Sprattel has been the best Swedish support for a long time, but with practice I should be able to exceed him.

– There has been a rise in quality swedish players for a while now, but we are still behind a country like Denmark. Sweden is probably top three in Europe when it comes to player quality at the moment.

The goals and expectations on a team like Fnatic are always high. With five LCS-splits won of the six that has been played, history speaks for itself. But the aims of the team are still long-terms.
– We’re not practicing to win the split, but to be a top contender at worlds. If I keep staying motivated and practicing, I’m sure I will go to Worlds with Fnatic.