Fnatic top laner Martin ‘Wunder’ Hansen has shed light on his absence from the starting lineup for the LEC Spring split.
The Danish top laner was left out of Fnatic’s starting lineup for the Spring split as the team underwent multiple changes after a disastrous Winter split that saw them finish in ninth place after posting a 2-7 record in the regular season.
Wunder was replaced by Óscar ‘Oscarinin’ Muñoz while support Rúben ‘rhuckz’ Barbosa made way for Henk ‘Advienne’ Reijenga, with the two new players coming from the academy squad, Fnatic TQ. There were also changes in the backroom staff as Tomáš ‘Nightshare’ Kněžínek came in as the new head coach, replacing Gonçalo ‘Crusher’ Brandão.
Speaking about his situation on Christian ‘IWillDominate’ Rivera’ stream, Wunder quashed rumors that he refused to play for Fnatic in the Spring Split.
“People are being like, ‘There should be repercussions if a player who is on a contract is refusing to play for a team,'” he said. “They think they know everything.”
Wunder explains why he isn’t playing for Fnatic in the LEC
When asked by IWillDominate about what happened during the off-season, Wunder explained that he didn’t have faith in the roster that Fnatic were assembling for the Spring split. Because of that, he made it clear that he had no interest in participating in trials with the team.
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“Disaster Winter, [and] they wanted to hold tryouts,” Wunder said. “The rumored tryout roster was not a team that I had much hope for, so I said it didn’t make sense to try out for a team you don’t really to play for.
“No one joins tryouts for a team they don’t want to play for. It doesn’t really make sense. That’s what happened. They wanted to try out Óscar and I didn’t actually want to try out, so they just went with Óscar. That’s it.”
Fnatic’s roster has struggled to find chemistry with the new players, with the team currently sitting at the bottom of the LEC standings with a 1-4 record ahead of March 20’s match against KOI. Oscarinin has so far cut a frustrated figure in the LEC as he is averaging a league-worst 0.9 KDA, according to Oracle’s Elixir.
Wunder has been with Fnatic since December 2021. In his first year in orange and black, the former G2 top laner helped the team to reach Worlds after they placed third in the Spring and Summer splits.