Fnatic find themselves in a great spot in the 2022 LEC Summer Split. Three weeks in, the team is sitting in joint-first place with a 5-2 score. Although they visibly struggled in the second week of the competition, the boys in black and orange bounced back relentlessly in week 3 to brush off Astralis and obliterate arch-nemesis G2 Esports.

Marek "Humanoid" Brázda, mid laner for Fnatic, wasn't worried about his team's progress but was still relieved to get some cleaner gameplay in.

After grabbing a win against Astralis, he spoke to Inven Global's Tom Matthiesen about the development of Fnatic. Humanoid discussed his role within the team and the perception of him being a shotcaller with an exceptional understanding of the macro game in League of Legends. He also weighed in on the team dynamics within Fnatic, and what his priorities are at this point in his career.

Welcome Humanoid, and congrats on the victory! That must be a relief after the messy 1-1 from last week.

Yeah, it was not a 60-minute win, so it was a lot cleaner than last week. [Laughs] I'm happy we did better.

"I'm someone who's usually trying to say what we're doing overall, the big picture in the mid game."

I saw you all smiling on stage, so it seemed like it was easy for you to reset after that off-week.

Yeah, it was pretty easy. We didn't get stomped in two games, so it was fine. [Laughs] It was still a 1-1 week, so I don't even think there was a reason to have to reset. We just continued with what we were already doing.

I want to dive more into your role on the team. When I spoke to Hylissang at the start of the Split, he said that you're someone who's trying to help the team a lot by teaching them about macro understanding. How is that progress going?

I think I'm someone who's usually trying to say what we're doing overall, the big picture in the mid game. From 15 minutes onwards, something like that. I'm used to it. I've been doing that for a few years now.

Do you see your teammates picking up on your knowledge?

Yeah, I think it's going pretty well so far. But I don't say that much, honestly. [Laughs] I basically say which side we are playing on and which wave we are gonna push. It's not some insane strategy or something.

Interesting, I always imagined you were someone to give detailed advice, coordinating the team. But you're just saying "push top" and "push bot" then? [Laughs]

[Laughs] Well there is more strategy to it, but that's basically it. I just flip a coin in my head and I say top or bot.

"I have more motivation to make it to Worlds this year. Especially since this is going to be Worlds with fans, finally. My first Worlds, three years ago, was with fans and it was great."

People talk about you — and I'm very much one of those people — as one of the few EU players with a good understanding of macro play. But you seem very humble about it.

I'm not sure. I can't see into the other teams, right? I can see how good they are. The bottom five teams don't really know what they're doing, for sure. But the top five teams know the game decently.

So it's not that big of a difference?

Nah.

Switching to something different, I want to ask you about your motivation for this year. You won back-to-back titles last year and are now in a team that was built to win the LEC again. Do you have the same motivation to win a title this year?

I think so, but I have more motivation to make it to Worlds this year. Especially since this is going to be Worlds with fans, finally. My first Worlds, three years ago, was with fans and it was great. I want to go there again. The Worlds goal comes first because when you're top three, you already go to Worlds. Then after that, you can win the LEC, right?

Right. However, this Split is now incredibly competitive. Last Split, Fnatic made that top three, but new teams are looking strong now. What do you have to sort out in the next weeks to make it to the top three again?

I think there are definitely more teams than usual this Split that can challenge for a top three spot. Usually, there are like four strong teams and the others are way worse. But this Split I think there are maybe six teams. It's gonna be harder, but right now we are doing well. I don't see a reason why we wouldn't be able to make it.

I'm not sure that there is one thing standing in our way. We just have to not have a bad day on the day that the best-of-5 comes. [Laughs] You can always have a bad night of sleep where you sleep two hours and then you're gonna fail. So, if that doesn't happen, we should be fine.

This Fnatic roster has had some trouble getting on the same page. We saw it during the Spring Split — although towards the final weeks you looked unstoppable — and we saw it again in the second week this Split. How do you look at the team dynamics?

I think, from the inside, it looks way better than last Split at least. I think a big reason why we didn't play well [in week 2] is because we played just one scrim block and we had two players that were sick for the entire week. It wasn't the best. But I think everything is fine now.

"Usually, there are like four strong teams and the others are way worse. But this Split I think there are maybe six teams. It's gonna be harder, but right now we are doing well."

Well, one thing I noticed is that the team can be a bit emotion-driven. I spoke to Razork, for example, who has been candid about being an emotional player. You strike me as less emotion-driven, but do you think Fnatic needs to find a more stable structure there?

It just depends on the types of people, I think. For me, I don't really care about it. If they are emotional, that also means that they'll play even better when they're doing well already. They will really enjoy it. That's an upside. But of course, if they're gonna lose 20 scrims in a row in the week before playoffs, then it's probably not gonna be too great for them. [Laughs] So as long as that doesn't happen, we should be fine.

Let's hope you don't lose 20 scrims in a row then. [Laughs] To round up, is there anything you'd like to say to the Fnatic fans, or at least to those still alive after that 60-minute heart attack from last week?

I'm glad that everyone managed to watch the entire game. Thank you for all the support!