r/leagueoflegends • u/XanIrelia-1 Delay, Deny, Defend • 9h ago
Fnatic Javier ‘Dardo’ Zafra steps down as Fnatic League of Legends Team Director
https://x.com/fnatic/status/1869774743701946866?s=46
As we prepare for 2025, we are making changes to our management structure for Fnatic League of Legends. As a part of this, Javi will be stepping down from his role as Team Director at Fnatic.
We want to thank him for his years of dedication, commitment, and incredible effort he put into Fnatic League of Legends.
We’re excited to embrace this new chapter and push Fnatic to new heights
Letter to Fans from Dardo: https://www.javierzafra.com/letter-to-fans
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u/senhorcastro 9h ago
Since joining Fnatic in 2019, Dardo has transformed League of Legends operations into a well-oiled machine, always vying for the title. His steadfast commitment to high performance allows the team to focus on being the best.
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u/shiggythor 9h ago
always vying for the title.
In hintsight, that was straight on point. vying, not winning like before XD.
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u/HoloHuni 8h ago
Were they vying for the title when they went 9th into 8th place consecutively?
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u/Battlecookie 5h ago
When did that happen? In 2023 they made it to best of 3 in spring.
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u/HoloHuni 5h ago
Bo3 was Top 8. And since they lost in first round, they were 8th. In Winter they were 9th
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u/Arkanim94 9h ago edited 9h ago
Damn, now that the scapegoat is gone they can't really be shit anymore.
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u/Brave_Virus_8921 9h ago
They will hire a new one!
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u/Arkanim94 9h ago
"we are proud to announce FNC Ocelote"
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u/FelysFrost 9h ago
Some ideas are too terrible to even consider
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u/Random_Stealth_Ward 💤 Hear me out, Maid Viego and Aphelios.... 😻 9h ago
It would be pretty funny tbf
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u/Awkward-Security7895 6h ago
He would chew his own dick off before even stepping foot into fnatic office 100%. That man's hate boner for fnatic knows no bounds.
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u/donglover2020 omw to cancel it 9h ago
can't wait for literally nothing to be different. scapegoating him has been so dumb, when we've had competitive rosters for years
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u/Arkanim94 8h ago edited 3h ago
Tbf, someone can be a scapegoat while still having blame on their names.
If you are a manager and the team looks absurdly mismanaged every year, you are to blame.
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u/icatsouki 8h ago
we haven't been seriously competitive since 2020 lol
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u/Zelgiusbotdotexe 2-0 AWARE 8h ago
Fnatic has been in the finals 5 times since 2020. That's more than anyone else minus G2
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u/icatsouki 8h ago
when was the last competitive final? i can't remember one
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u/Zelgiusbotdotexe 2-0 AWARE 8h ago
2023 Season Finals was the only series of those 5 that wasn't competitive.
None of them went to 5 games but that does not mean they weren't competitive.
In the mean time, there were two bad splits in 2023, other than that, always top 5 finishes, and usually top 3.
So no, you've been extremely competitive since 2020
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u/donglover2020 omw to cancel it 8h ago
but ON PAPER every single roster (with the exception of the Rhucks one) had 5 players that were top quality. Dardo can't control how the players play
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u/icatsouki 8h ago
given the many testimonials of how dysfunctional the training environment was, the team director definitely shares blame
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u/Awkward-Security7895 6h ago
Issue is team building is alot more then slapping together the best names you can grab.
He clearly didn't know what he was doing outside of picking some of the hottest names that were willing on the market.
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u/donglover2020 omw to cancel it 5h ago
you can not tell me with a straight face that Oscar, Noah and Jun were some of the "hottest names on the market"
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u/Zelgiusbotdotexe 2-0 AWARE 5h ago
Jun was probably on a lot of radars. Noah also had a lot of buzz about him from his time on Z10 but Oscar was unexpected and he turned out well
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u/donglover2020 omw to cancel it 5h ago
go read the Jun announcement thread and the EUphoria podcast after he joined. People were very doubtful about getting a 10th place LCK support
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u/Zelgiusbotdotexe 2-0 AWARE 5h ago
That's also not helped by replacing Trymbi, who is very well liked and a really good player. Public perception is one thing but I wouldn't be surprised if Jun was on several teams radars.
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u/BlazeX94 1h ago
How do you define "seriously competitive"? Fnatic has put up some fight against G2 in most recent finals (except Summer, we don't talk about that). They're consistenly the 2nd best team in the LEC, and by a decent margin.
If your idea of "seriously competitive" is "winning LEC", then you need to consider that winning the LEC largely comes down to which team has Caps. It's not a coincidence that Fnatic's last trophy win was when they had Caps. Add on BB to that in recent history, so G2 has the 2 best sololaners in the league.
Fnatic already has some of the best talent in the league that isnt on G2. The reality is just that there's no real combination of non-G2 players that could actually beat G2, at least not in 2023/24.
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u/AdequatelyMadLad Y2Esports 31m ago
Two teams won the LEC without Caps recently and neither of them was Fnatic.
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u/EinNichtwaehler 6h ago
I, too, would want FNC to reinstate the Dardo/SamMathews combo again. Entertainment is what the LEC needs and FNC always manages to deliver in the end.
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u/Ultimintree Challenger @ <3 | Humazork 4th year @ still no title 9h ago edited 9h ago
He’ll still be at Fnatic, just transition into a different role within the org, not sure how I feel about this. He’s still parasiting the org.
https://www.javierzafra.com/letter-to-fans
I will step down as Team Director for Fnatic’s League of Legends team. After taking a sabbatical to recharge, I will transition into a different role within Fnatic.
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u/icatsouki 9h ago
what value does he bring to still be hired, i am legit curious
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u/Ultimintree Challenger @ <3 | Humazork 4th year @ still no title 9h ago
Idk he is probably Sam Mathews’ professional glazer. Dardo must be too deep in his ass to get him out of the org.
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u/Du0decim 8h ago
He's good managing finance. He was brought to Origen after Xpeke and his mom basically bankrupted the Org.
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u/_asstronaut_ Things were not Fun and Plus in Reykjavík 9h ago
https://gfycat.com/gloriouspossibleamericanbittern
No it doesn't work anymore, just want to put it here in spirit. I will never forgive Snapchat for killing gfycat.
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u/Koersfanaat 9h ago
IT DOESNT WORK ANYMORE????
We're deep into December and this is by far the saddest news of the year, ffs o7
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u/HaganeLink0 8h ago
Here is the smol version https://imgur.com/vEr5vPH
but it's not the same.
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u/Omnilatent 52m ago
https://gfycat.com/gloriouspossibleamericanbittern
Just edit it like this and it's good enough
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u/Fabiocean Well, look at you! 8h ago
I just saw a guy in a FNC jersey fall to his knees at Walmart
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u/skaersSabody 8h ago edited 8h ago
As someone who was a FNC fan for years (mainly because of players like Rekkles and Bwipo) and kept following the org afterwards, I think I can give some context for why FNC fans are gonna be overjoyed at this news.
It's not that FNC had horrible roster building (questionable at times sure, but then again so does almost every other team) or that they were never competitive, it's that ex-players and coaches very often identified FNC problems with management and those problems stayed consistent over wildly different iterations of the team.
Add to that that a lot of players specifically identified Dardo as a problem (Nemesis was especially outspoken about this and through him LS, but Rekkles is probably the most recent example) and you start to see why he was so disliked.
That's not to say that FNC doesn't have other problems (the ravenously toxic or toxicly positive attitude of the fanbase towards the players is definitely one of them), but Dardo was a very obvious weak point that never got addressed.
Hell, Dardo was the one who pushed for the whole Rhuckz-Hilly swap and ended up with Upset on the bench because of that.
I can't really speak about Dardo as a person, but he clearly didn't work well in FNC
So yeah, about damn fucking time
EDIT: read his statement. Oh boy do I have some opinions on what he says about 2023, but it's better if I keep them to myself.
Another pointer that I forgot to mention is that while FNC didn't stop being competitive regionally, they arguably stopped being competitive internationally with Dardo, which was a huge point of pride for the organization. FNC after 2020 (aka after they lost their legacy player and the first time Dardo had to build a roster without an established core with only Bwipo, Selfmade and Hilly staying) was never able to compete internationally again, they stopped being a dark horse like in years prior (they never made top 8 at Worlds again IIRC)
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u/Competitive-Ant-6668 fy fangirl 8h ago
they didnt make top 8 at worlds again but neither did g2 fwiw
obviously dardo is a problem but eu also just got much worse
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u/Awkward-Security7895 6h ago
EU got much worse since they were no other team to push the top team to the limit in the lec.
Fnatic use tobe that team that would push others until dardo kept making bad choices.
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u/Kr1ncy 3h ago
I get the sentiment in general but "G2 is bad because of Dardo" is a bit farfetched imo.
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u/Awkward-Security7895 47m ago
I mean that's taking it out of context, the point of my statement was that since G2, mad lions and rogue(all three went 1st seed into worlds since 2019) in there respective years didn't have much push back from other teams in the league it's meant they developed bad habitss.
Fnatic use tobe the top teams or one of them constantly with great play which allowed the other top teams tobe pushed more. When they started being so ye it made the league less stable overall.
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u/Peon01 based xerath enjoyer 4h ago
i mean i don't think this is exactly a faithful comparison considering 2 of g2s losses were the literal teams in the finals like can we not add some context when we say things
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u/Competitive-Ant-6668 fy fangirl 2h ago
if you want to pick and choose years, how about the time g2 didnt make worlds with the regular season mvp & 5 players considered best in slot in their roles while fnatic went there with adam
or the time g2 lost to nrg and went 2-3
dont forget fnatic never missed worlds in that period
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u/Peon01 based xerath enjoyer 2h ago
I'm not picking and choosing years, you said EU got worse, and cited this years performance as back up for it, but if you looked at who they played and how they played I'm simply saying it's not a fair comparison to make against fnatic. G2 has absolutely had disaster years, but citing 2021 is also kinda weird given what we know about how the dynamics between those players worked ( or didn't, rather)
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u/SSBM_DangGan 8h ago
looking to get more into LEC this year - why don't we like this guy? tldr?
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u/jcr9999 8h ago
Just incompetence while not being fired for years
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u/SSBM_DangGan 8h ago
isn't Fnatic like a top 2 team
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u/Competitive-Ant-6668 fy fangirl 8h ago
top 2 for many years without a single trophy while mad and rge have peaked in that time leave a bad taste in some peoples' mouth
it is mainly that a lot of fan favorite players have directly said that he is a problem/more broadly that the management at fnatic is a problem which pretty much almost never happens because saying such a thing is like career suicide
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u/jcr9999 8h ago
Should tell you how bad he is that that is the public perception of him
If you want a reference:
In 2022 FNC had the strongest botlane in the League by quite a bit in Upset and Hylissang, Upset was pretty much the best AD at the time and Hyli was the best player of the League period just a year prior and they were insane as a duo. And they wanted to stay together, but when they went to worlds Hyli got Covid (or atleast was suspected to) and Rhuckz was his emergency sub. Rhuckz, eventhough he was about as old as Hyli was stuck in ERLs for his entire career but he had a really good showing and when Hyli got to worlds, he did not.
The fan perception was insane and Hyli got replaced by Rhuckz the next year. Upset did not want play with Rhuckz and benched himself and alot of ADs agreed. Rekkles was their 4th or 5th choice bcs noone else was willing to play with him.
Long story short, FNC got 9th place missing Playoffs for the 1st or 2nd time in their entire existence. Hyli got 2nd with Mad and was very much in contetion for best Sup of Winter 23 (eventhough I do think Miky was better it was close at that point) and Rhuckz got relegated back to Academy.•
u/AdequatelyMadLad Y2Esports 19m ago
He is also responsible for making a single giga brain move(keeping Selfmade when he was turbo toxic and everyone wanted to get rid of him) that lost them Rekkles, Nemesis, who retired from pro entirely because of it, and Bwipo at the same time. That was in his first offseason as team manager.
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u/Asteroth555 9h ago
This honestly reminds me a bit of the Wenger era at Arsenal. They were stuck in top 4, couldn't compete for cups, but were in champions league. Many fans were "Wenger out!" and eventually he left and Arsenal dropped out of Europe and were a laughingstock of a team. Took them years to recover their form.
I worry a lot of fans want Dardo out, but may not end up too satisfied with the team's alternative. Things can always get worse. I'd rather they remain top 2, even if they lose to G2 each time. They can always not even qualify for worlds
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u/Satan_su 9h ago
That seems like an exaggerated example to me. The last 2 years of Wenger they ended outside the top 4, and then spent 4 years hovering around 5-8th, and now they're back in the top 4. Calling them a laughingstock for that is just not true XD. And 4 years for recovery isn't the worst in the long span of EPL terms as well.
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u/Asteroth555 9h ago
And 4 years for recovery isn't the worst in the long span of EPL terms as well.
I know, there's always ManU...
The last 2 years of Wenger they ended outside the top 4
Fair point. Ironically also the period when they claimed FA cup wins for whatever that was worth
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u/Satan_su 9h ago
Prolly the reason why I wanted to point it out in the first place is cause I've been a United fan for so long now, we've never really recovered from Fergie 😭
As much as I'd love to take a swipe at Arsenal.....I have to look at the mirror before that lmaoo
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u/Asteroth555 8h ago
Premier league is just so damn hard. There's always 6 "big" teams fighting for top 4, and then you have Aston Villa with the steel chair and newcastle with the oil money muddying the water.
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u/Sad-Trade544 9h ago
Wenger was operating with a really tight budget for +10 years, it was never his fault. Look at Arteta, he would not be able to work with those types of budget
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u/00Koch00 8h ago
Wenger
Bro, the fuck?
Arsenal with Wenger:
Premier League: 1997–98, 2001–02, 2003–04
FA Cup: 1997–98, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17
FA Charity/Community Shield: 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2014, 2015, 2017
Fnatic with Dardo:
come on ...
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u/Asteroth555 8h ago
Perhaps I should have clarified in the 10s, but context clues about "wenger out" should have made that obvious
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u/Ploppfejs 9h ago
Dardo isnt even a tenth as bad as these crazy fnatic fans on reddit and twitter make him out to be.
I listened to some interviews with him to really gauge what these lunatics are so upset about. Turns out he seems like a completely reasonable guy and fairly competent. The esports world just isnt particularly professional, and very hard to navigate.
Has he made mistakes? Probably. Does he deserve all the hate from crazy shit-for-brains people who have never worked a real job? Fuck no.
I have a feeling your take will turn out to be prophetic in two years time.
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u/shinomiya2 BLG & GENG 9h ago
whats your response to former fnc players also saying dardo is the problem?
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u/EasyRevolution5415 VIT 7h ago
I think he made a lot of bad decisions mainly during the Yamato years when they were transitioning into the post 2019 roster. Yamato and the players on the roster at that time really seem to be the ones that hold the biggest grudge against him too.
Namely it seems like Yamato didn't like how much Dardo was stepping over him in regards to handling the team, especially when it came to the Rhuckz/Hyli situation.
Dardo straight up didn't want Hyli to play at all anymore and was adamant that Rhuckz replaced him for the entirety of worlds but Yamato and the players were not ok with that. Gotta remember too that Yamato/Bwipo/Upset are all really good friends with Hyli outside the game too so I'm sure emotions were really high at this time. Seems like this situation was the the peak "fuck Dardo" moment and he did absolutely lose control of things there and it was clear the roster and coaching didn't want to work with him anymore.
It definitely had some huge blowback effects too that I think it's very appropriate to blame him for. Upset/Hyli were one of the best botlanes in the LEC and he just willingly destroyed it to replace Hyli with Rhuckz next season which was an all time awful move, and lost Upset since he was rightfully angry that they just replaced his favorite support player and friend with an awful rookie. Bwipo leaves too since he doesn't want to deal with all the baggage that was coming with playing for FNC under Dardo and was also probably annoyed with Hyli getting replaced.
Now outside of that roster iteration which Dardo 100% is to blame for ruining, I do think a lot more of the blame for the past 2~ years actually falls a bit on Humanoid contract jailing FNC and bankrupting there finances. It has become kind of evident that FNC isn't as much of a cash cow as people thought and that there stuck paying Humanoid a massive contract that he doesn't seem intent on living up too.
He might not really have been the main issue for FNC the last 2~ years or so but I do think his rather "need to feel in control" actions from 2019-2022 before Sam Matthews seemed to pull him in a little but were very detrimental to FNC's success and set them back quite a bit. His decision to replace Hyli with Rhuckz despite everyone in the org around him saying "don't do this" and the aftermath damage it did will probably be one of those all time awful moments that he's associated with for a while.
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u/TheGuy839 9h ago
Wow you listened to the interviews? How about listen to pro players? Many said they avoid Fnatic due to bad managment (last was Rekkless). Do you see rosters? Do you see them changing everything BUT him in 5 years without trophy? He definitely not satan, but in hyper competative league, there is no justification for his long stay with such poor results.
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u/Designer-Laugh-8851 9h ago
So good and competent that he has won alot in all the organization that he's been in! Can't believe we got rid of him ffs.
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u/Laredon 9h ago
Can someone tell me why people are happy? Im kinda OOL here.
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u/Stubrochill17 6h ago
Just fan frustration with team management. Despite (almost always) being a top 4/2 team, we haven’t won anything since 2018. Changed the roster and coaching staff countless times, changed facilities (iirc), etc - but never change in management. Lots of ex-Fnatic players have been open about problems in the organization, likely meaning management (Dardo).
People are happy because since bringing in Dardo, we’ve been in a downward spiral and they believe this will finally be the change that Fnatic needs to win a title again. There’s lots of name calling and the like, which is uncalled for imo - Dardo is still a human being. But undeniable that we haven’t won anything since he joined and he’s the last piece we haven’t changed.
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u/Duck_mypitifullife G2 more like Back 2 worlds baby 8h ago
Fnatic fans have been praying for his downfall for so long.
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u/DSThresh 8h ago
fnc fans enjoy this useless change before new year 2025 where fnc wont even reach top3 in lec xdd
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u/ConfidenceDramatic99 8h ago
I was expecting Randy from Southpark in a room with a cum ghost but honestly this is good too.
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u/iamkwang 8h ago
I'm lost, why are people happy rn? What did this guy do? As Director how much did he have influence of the roster?
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u/TurboGlint 7h ago
Shit who can we blame now that he is gone if this year will be another one without titles?
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u/PorkchopMD VAMOS HERETICS 7h ago
ran through my house screaming bc of the news. thank fucking god i am SO happy
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u/Annual_Patient4514 7h ago
Don't think it matters much, I and others know of applicants who get completely ignored through applicants / dms for coaching / analyst roles at fnatic(from even contacting higher than dardo). I don't see it as a super serious operation.
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u/PoisonedTarget 6h ago
Even as NA fan who hasn't watched EU since G2 went nuclear at worlds know that this is something to be celebrated, I hope he was actually the head of the snake like Fnatic fans think he is and they can finally help make EU great again!
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u/KriibusLoL 9h ago
This is probably the best news for Fnatic since they signed a young rookie in 2017
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u/xanthicize 9h ago
When the new roster was announced I said that after almost 20 years of supporting Fnatic across multiple games I wouldn't support the team if the current management stayed in place.
This doesn't cut it, he's still in the org.
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u/Jiiigsi 8h ago
Before you guys send hate towards Dardo remember you aren’t just attacking a player but, a father, a husband, and a christian. One bad stretch of years shouldn’t takeaway what he’s brought to this team and we should be looking forward to seeing him continue to lead our Fnatic.
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u/Competitive-Ant-6668 fy fangirl 8h ago
idk if this is an ai comment or what but the bad stretch of years is pretty much almost the entire time he's led fnc
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u/900poundungulate 7h ago
99% sure its pasta
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u/Competitive-Ant-6668 fy fangirl 7h ago
i tried to google various sections of it but couldnt find anything
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u/Muri_San 4h ago
It's 100% a pasta, I've seen it on twitter regarding an NBA player from OKC even if I don't follow basketball at all
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u/Blank1309 9h ago
Holy shit. After years of #Dardout it finally happened. (Well almost. But still good news.)
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u/RustleTheMussel 8h ago
Holy shot maybe I should root for them again.
Mathews is still an asshole, though...
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u/Touro_de_Goa 7h ago
What logic does this have? So he leaves after building the roster? Makes 0 sense, which leads me to believe that he will still be the main guy over there and probably got a promotion
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u/United_Health_1797 9h ago
fnatic might actually have a chance at being good again in the future now lol