Image credit: Michal Konkol (LoL Esports)
League of Legends coach and broadcast analyst Jakob "YamatoCannon" Mebdi is reportedly joining Fnatic as their head coach for the 2021 season, according to investigative journalist Jacob Wolf.
YamatoCannon would be returning to coaching months after nearly leading SANDBOX Gaming to the playoffs in the League Champions Korea (LCK). Indeed, the team started on a 0:5 series deficit before he was cleared the join it after undergoing quarantine, only to nearly turn the season around with a 7:11 result. Although they ended far from Afreeca Freecs' fifth place playoff spot (and 10:8 record), they closely contested Afreeca and Gen.G in their final games of the season.
The coach parted ways with SANDBOX for personal reasons, to return to Europe where his coaching career started. Although he never had the opportunity to handle firepower of FNATIC's scale, he did well with Splyce's rookie lineup in 2016 and Team Vitality's in 2018 — both of which reached the World Championship for the LEC.
YamatoCannon would be replacing mithy, who helped Fnatic reach back-to-back LEC finals, both losses to G2 Esports 3:0. Under mithy's guidance, Fnatic had a less tumultuous time behind-the-scenes at Worlds but were unable to qualify to the semifinals despite holding a 2:0 lead against TOP Esports. The team's lack of planning undid them, but mithy's rookie coaching experience showed promise.
mithy's future prospects would be uncertain following the move, unless G2 Esports and Cloud9 can reach an agreement on mid laner Luka "Perkz" Perković. On that case, Jacob Wolf noted that his previous working relationship with Perkz and Cloud9 AD carry Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen would serve him well should he land an assistant coaching position within Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin's staff.
