Bwipo addresses turmoil at Worlds 2021, thanks partner

Nicholas James Published 18/10/2021

Fnatic’s journey at the 2021 World Championship was anything but smooth.

The day before the event, Fnatic announced that AD carry Elias “Upset” Lipp would not be attending due to an urgent family matter. After being eliminated from the group stage, it’s been made clear that the collapse of the main roster deeply affected the Fnatic players. Fnatic top laner Gabriel “Bwipo” Rau took to Twitter after Fnatic’s elimination from Worlds 2021 to speak on his own struggles at the pinnacle of competitive League of Legends.

Throughout the tournament, Bwipo had expressed his thanks to his significant other for her support through the up and downs of Fnatic’s journey at Worlds. Bwipo made clear in a Twitlonger that it wouldn’t have been made possible without his girlfriend. Bwipo details dire morale for Fnatic when they realized at the last minute that they would not be playing with their full starting roster.

In the Twitlonger, Bwipo describes the immense support given to him by Lena and credits her for breakthroughs in communication and Morale for the European second seed heading into the second week of play. The statement also takes aim at toxic fan sentiments drummed up from Twitter drama earlier in the tournament. The rigors of competitive play aggrandized by a last-minute roster collapse had led Bwipo to unfollow some Fnatic accounts in frustration. This was picked up by a Twitter bot that monitors League of Legends-related account activity on the platform and subsequently escalated to theories of internal dispute within the team and organization.

Bwipo shows clearly that the internal difficulties for Fnatic were brought on by the sudden loss of Upset, and credits his partner with helping to save the team’s communications as well as talking him down from trying to leave the tournament himself.

Nicholas James

About Nicholas James

Nicholas James is a gaming writer with a passion for all things geekdom, as well as live theater. Nicholas is best known for covering League of Legends and other top MOBA titles, but his expertise covers numerous games across multiple genres. When not watching the LCS or playing the latest new release, Nicholas can be found doing some tabletop gaming and painting his favorite miniatures. Nicholas has also published with Hotspawn, TheGamer, Dexerto, Esports.gg and other industry outlets.

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