League of Legends: NicoThePico Returns to Fnatic as UKLC Head Coach
| Tags: League of Legends
| Author David Hollingsworth
Fnatic has finalized its 2020 UKLC roster and coaching staff with the news that Nicholas “NicoThePico” Korsgård will be returning to the team.
NicoThePico was part of the late 2016 – early 2017 Fnatic rebuild. After veteran talent left the team and a new roster was built for the side, focusing around ADC Martin “Rekkles” Larsson. While that period of Fnatic did not go as intended, looking back it was clear that Fnatic had unearthed some serious talent. Most notably in jungler Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen and mid laner Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther.
Both helped Fnatic reach the Worlds finals in 2018. Sadly both Broxah and Caps have left Fnatic, with Broxah most recently moving to North America with Team Liquid. While Caps joined G2 Esports picking up two LEC titles, an MSI trophy and another Worlds final appearance.
Clearly, what Fnatic realized from this period was that Nico had an eye for young talent. So moving him to the team's UKLC roster is a no brainer. Fnatic Rising was dominant in 2019 in the UK but failed to show that same dominance in the EU Masters event.
Fnatic Rising will go into 2020 with a mix of the old roster with some new faces. With jungler Dan ‘Dan’ Hockley, mid laner Felix ‘MagiFelix’ Boström and ADC Matthew ‘xMatty’ Coombs all returning to the side. 2020 will see three new faces join the side in top laner Mahdi ‘Pride’ Nasserzadeh and support Love ‘Bravado’ Rapp, Rising will also have Chibs joining as sub mid laner.
The full Fnatic Rising UKLC roster is as follows:
Top: Pride
Jungle: Dan
Mid: MagiFelix
ADC: xMatty
Support: Bravado
Sub: Chibs
Head Coach: NicoThePico
NicoThePico Gives His Insight Into the Return
“First of all, speaking of my previous experience of working at Fnatic, I always felt very well taken care of by the entire organization — that is from the social media staff to all different people working over at the London HQ. Overall, it was always an experience I thought of pleasantly even if it didn’t end off how I would have liked.” Said Korsgård.
Speaking about his role, Korsgård said, “I've always had a good dialogue with Fnatic’s management and have had continuous talks regarding my old players and new talents too. I’m thankful now that Patrik and the team have put faith in me once again. We are intending this to be a long term role as Head Coach for the Rising team while I also scout, develop new players and assist Mithy and the main team where possible.”
Korsgård also spoke about his previous work with Fnatic, “I'm fully intending to continue the track record I've built through the years at Fnatic in finding and developing new talent with high potential for both the Rising and the main team. Aiming and working towards bringing up the next Broxah, Caps, Nisqy, etc is always our goal. I fully believe they are out there, and I already have my eyes on quite a few younglings who I'm very confident will go big, in addition to the Rising roster we've already put together with very strong faith!” Before going on to add that in “…2020 and beyond, Rising will act as a mix of being able to compete with the best, being a valuable scrim partner to our LEC team and also to develop new talent.”