Upset and Hylissang rejoining Fnatic roster at Worlds

With both of Fnatic’s star bot laners testing negative for Covid 19 a day before their first match in the Play-In stage at the World Championship, hopes are resurfacing.

It has been a rough year for fans of the Fnatic’s League of Legends roster and this last week has been no exception. After all of the ups and downs the team had to endure in the last 12 months, fans are looking for signs of light. 2022 was another roller coaster of emotions following their drama-filled fiasco at the 2021 World Championship,  and this week was no exception. We already covered everything that went wrong for Fnatic recently, but today we got some good news.

Upset and Hylissang cleared to play at Worlds

Just 24 hours before their first match of the Play-In stage at the World Championship, Fnatic announced on Twitter that their bot lane has been cleared to play. Having tested negative for Covid 19 was the first step, with Elias “Upset”  Lipp already on his way to Mexico. He will rejoin the roster and be the starting ADC for Fnatic in their opening matches against Evil Geniuses and Chiefs. This will be Upset’s long-awaited debut on the World’s stage, where he will need to prove his world-class talent against the highest level of competition. Fnatic goes as far as Upset takes them and recent developments don’t help their cause.

Zdravets “Hylissang” Galabov has also been cleared to play and fly, but since he received his results later, he couldn’t get on the same flight as Upset. According to Fnatic’s statement, he will get on the next flight to Mexico but miss the first day of the competition. They are hopeful he will be ready to slot in for Friday’s match-up against Detonation Focus Me, while Rúben “Rhuckz” Barbosa takes over as the starting support on the first day.

Will Fnatic get to the group stage?

Fnatic won’t be at full strength for their first game of the Play-in stage, against their hardest opponent on paper. Evil Geniuses are also playing with a substitute but this is not to discredit Fnatic’s other opponents. All year long we saw how Fnatic struggled in the best-of-one series, showing signs of brilliance only when the LEC 2022 Summer playoffs rolled around. The play-in stage at Worlds has always been known as the battleground for upsets, so expect the unexpected. Fnatic dodged RNG, DRX, and the MAD Lions by placing into group A but will probably have to go through one of them in the Qualification round to get to the Main stage at Worlds.

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