Fnatic have been dealing with player illness in the lead-up to the League of Legends 2022 World Championships. Riot Games has granted the team an additional emergency substitute for the competition the developer announced on September 26.
In a statement online, the developer said that Fnatic will be granted an additional substitute slot at Worlds 2022 due to Fnatic’s bot lane duo testing positive. The player coming up for the European team is their European Regional League team support Rúben ‘Rhuckz’ Barbosa.
With the bot lane duo unable to travel at the moment, Rhucks and substitute Mauno ‘beansu’ Tälli may have to hold the line until Fnatic’s main starters return.
Competitive Operations Update: FNATIC RosterRiot Games has permitted FNATIC an emergency roster addition due to two players contracting COVID. The player Rhuckz, from Fnatic's ERL team "Fnatic TQ", has been added as a seventh player to the FNC roster.
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) September 26, 2022
Worlds 2022 is set to start competition on September 29 with the Play-In Stage. Fnatic will begin their Worlds campaign on the first day with two matches against Evil Geniuses and Chiefs Esports Club.
Fnatic has released a statement themselves saying that they will be able to provide more updates in the next two days about the status of starting bot lane duo Elias ‘Upset’ Lipp and Zdravets ‘Hylissang’ Iliev Galabov.
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#Worlds2022 UPDATE: @rhuckz has arrived safely in Mexico and will sub for Hylissang should he be unable to travel. We will provide more updates within the next 48 hours regarding Upset and Hylissang. Thank you for your support and well wishes for the players! https://t.co/fgLRZxHCTz
— FNATIC (@FNATIC) September 26, 2022
“Rhuckz has arrived safely in Mexico and will sub for Hylissang should he be unable to travel. We will provide more updates within the next 48 hours regarding Upset and Hylissang,” the statement said.
Fnatic and substitutes at Worlds
If Fnatic go into Worlds 2022 without Upset in the lineup, it will be the second year in a row the team will have had to field a substitute for the German player. At Worlds 2021, Fnatic had to field their substitute bot laner Louis ‘BEAN’ Schmitz due to Upset leaving to deal with a family matter.
At that tournament, Fnatic finished with a 1-5 record in the Group Stage after earning a direct seed past the Play-In Stage.
Worlds 2022 begins on September 29 with the Play-In Stage.
