Fnatic To Part Ways With Long-Time Support Hylissang and Promote Rhuckz

After nearly five years with Fnatic, Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov won’t be wearing the black and orange jersey anymore.

While LCK is still waiting to play in Worlds Finals, Western teams already started their post-Worlds offseason roster changes. Fnatic is the latest team shaking things up ahead of the 2023 season. The organization came into 2022 with great hopes, but haven’t found their win in the European league. And after an especially disappointing second week of Worlds Groups, they decided to make changes fast.

Shockingly, the first roster change from Fnatic came in the support position. According to a report from the blix.gg reporter Marián “Eros” Stoica, Fnatic decided that Hylissang will not be a part of their starting roster for LEC in 2023, and they promoted Rúben “Rhuckz” Barbosa from their academy team, Fnatic TQ, instead. Rhuckz was a stand-in for the team and played with them during the Play-In stage of Worlds 2022, as Hylissang missed Day 1 games due to COVID.

Sources: Rhuckz 🇵🇹 is set to be promoted as Fnatic LEC support for next season
Hylissang 🇧🇬will be leaving Fnatic after almost 5 years in the org

Details: https://t.co/EkHCFJzlRV

— Eros (@i_Eros_) November 3, 2022

Officially end of an era

While Hylissang had his ups and downs in recent months and this change might be seen as necessary by the organization, it definitely won’t be easy for Fnatic fans to see Hylissang go. The veteran support was the last remaining player from Fnatic’s 2018 roster, which won both EU LCS Splits that year and made the Worlds finals. Their star mid laner, Rasmus “caPs” Borregaard Winther, had left for G2 Esports after their 3-0 loss to Invictus Gaming, with the rest of the roster slowly following in his steps.

After making a name for himself in the beloved Unicorns of Love squad, Hylissang joined Fnatic on December 2017. The Professor, as he is dubbed by the Korean community, made Worlds Finals and won two EU LCS titles with Fnatic. With his 8x All-Pro team selections and multiple close MVP finishes, Hylissang is regarded as the best Western support player.

It will be interesting to see what Hylissang decides to do for his future, one thing is for sure it will be weird not to see him play for Fnatic. However, finding a new team might not be easy for him. Hylissang currently has one more year on his contract with Fnatic, and LoL buyouts are notoriously high, especially for players with big names. There is a chance Hylissang struggles to find a LEC team willing to pay a high buyout, as we saw last year with Carl Martin Erik “Rekkles” Larsson, who couldn’t find a LEC team and spent the year on Karmine Corp in LFL.