It's the second year in a row that Fnatic is in a bind right as they're heading into the biggest League of Legends event of the year, the LoL Worlds. This year the team is going to have to compete with two substitute players at the start of the Play-In phase.
It seems that September isn't the best month for Fnatic. Last year, just as they were heading off to compete at the 2021 League of Legends World Championship, their star ADC had to rush home, because his wife had been sexually harassed.
Now, a year later, neither Upset, nor Hylissang, the ADC and Support of Fnatic, have made the trip to Mexico City for their chance to earn a spot at the main event of the World Championship, due to both players having COVID-19.
Lol Worlds: Riot Allows Fnatic to Bring Second Substitute
On September 26, 2022 Riot announced that they permitted Fnatic to call up Rúben "Rhuckz" Barbosa from Fnatic's ERL team Fnatic TQ to take Hyllisang's place at the start of the Play-In stage of the 2022 League of Legends World Championship.
Jumping in for bot laner Upset is none other than Louis "BEAN" Schmitz who had also taken part in the 2021 League of Legends World Championship for the bot laner. So this is going to be Bean's second World Championship, hopefully this time he had more time to scrim and practice with the team.
This isn't the end for Upset or Hylissang though, with them able to join the team once they test negative. Therefore, Fnatic still has a good chance of making it out of the Play-In stage and having their complete roster if they make it to New York.
Fnatic has promised to keep the fans updated on the status of the players as they recover from the virus and try to get better so they can join the team as soon as possible.