Mads ‘Broxah’ Brock-Pedersen has taken aim at “toxic” and “aggressive” fans who have been attacking Fnatic after their exit from the League of Legends World Championship, admitting the backlash has been “brutal.”
After finishing as runners-up in 2018, many expected Fnatic to perform similarly this time around. After the seven-time LEC champions beat the odds to send Royal Never Give Up home in the group of death, the hype only grew.
The team’s 3-1 quarterfinal loss, then, was a shock for European fans who had bought into the hype, and one some have seen as unforgivable.
Forget the fact FunPlus Phoenix marched on to lift the Summoner’s Cup with a 3-1 win over Invictus Gaming, and a 3-0 smashing of G2 Esports in the final. The fans only have eyes for Fnatic’s failures.
As a professional player, Broxah admitted he’s used to a certain degree of criticism from fans and followers, especially considering he plays for one of the biggest esports teams in the world. This offseason, however, is worse than ever before.
“I’ve been getting more flame from fans than I have ever experienced in my career, fans have been aggressive, negative, toxic… it’s been something different,” the Danish jungler said after returning home from the championship in Madrid.
“It’s been pretty brutal seeing a lot of Fnatic fans saying that I was the only reason that we lost at Worlds. I don’t even know how fans can come to the conclusion any one player was the only reason we didn’t beat FPX. It’s pretty next level.”
The Danish star said he believes many of the problems have come from the fact that his Fnatic teammates have tried to be “as honest as they can” for the fans. Now he feels maybe that openness — which many teams avoid — may have backfired.
“I think the main issue is a lot of my teammates have been pretty honest about the fact that we have been having issues inside the team, there’s been stuff going on, and we haven’t been playing as much as a team as we should,” he said.
“I don’t know how people can ever come to the conclusion that one person on the team is the only reason that a team doesn’t beat FPX. Now also keep in mind, and I’m not saying I was perfect – there were things I could do different – a lot of the things that are being commented on are pretty ridiculous.”
Broxah added that Fnatic had reached the final eight of the championship, and delivered one of the biggest moments in the competition’s history when they scored a 3-0 result during the second bout of round-robin games.
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“We still left our mark on the tournament… I’m by no means satisfied, we could have beat FPX, but we got out of the hardest group at Worlds with RNG and SKT, week two Fnatic was back and we really stepped up,” he said.
“If you want to scapegoat someone, you are actually trolling, and you need to stop being keyboard warriors. We lost as a team. It was a team effort to go as far as we did, it was a team effort in the Summer split to almost take down G2, it was a team effort to get out of the group of death. We win as a team, we lose as a team.
“I also want to make it clear that most fans are not like this. Most of you guys out there are great people, but there are a lot of people in this current moment that want to scapegoat people on my team, me and my teammates, and it’s bullsh*t.”
Despite Broxah’s message to the fans, there are some that have already bought into whispers he and Rekkles came to blows over their differences in the middle of the season, despite Fnatic’s bot laner already rubbishing the rumors.
The rumors about Rekkles and me disliking each other and having a poor relationship needs to stop,” Broxah wrote on Twitter on November 17.
“We have a lot of mutual respect towards each other, as well as always sharing advice and showing support when necessary. A world where we would fight simply doesn’t exist,” he added, and shared a photo of the two hugging on-stage. “Does this look like hatred to you?”
Does this look like hatred to you? pic.twitter.com/wqVzY2qRvy
— Broxah (@BroxahLoL) November 16, 2019
Finally, the Fnatic jungler took aim at the “keyboard warriors” who had been hammering him and his teammates non-stop since their quarterfinal exit.
“If people want to flame individual players, and bring the good old solo queue meme of flaming the jungler, feel free… if you want to flame me, flame me,” he said, “but it’s kind of a joke. You’re actually trolling if you do.”
Despite rejecting suggestions he would be trading in the orange and black of Fnatic for the blue of Team Liquid in 2020, the North American rumor-mill regarding the Dane’s potential swap has rolled on.
Travis Gafford and former TSM coach Choi ‘Locodoco’ Yoon-seop have both suggested the Danish jungler was fielding offers from the four-time LCS champions, while Spanish podcast Esportmaniacos reported Rekkles had asked Broxah to be removed from the starting roster.
Keep track of all of League of Legends’ ongoing transfer rumors with Dexerto’s dedicated offseason roster tracker.
