Fnatic to play first playoffs game online due to positive COVID-19 test

Fnatic will play their first 2021 summer League of Legends European Championship playoffs series online due to a positive COVID-19 test result from top laner Adam “Adam” Maanane, the team announced today.

Adam is recovering and no other Fnatic team or staff members have tested positive, according to the team’s statement. He will compete remotely while the rest of his team will play in the Fnatic offices. Fnatic play Team Vitality in the lower bracket on Sunday.

An update regarding the #LEC playoffs: pic.twitter.com/UMHl9Cgg3j

— FNATIC (@FNATIC) August 13, 2021

LEC players had returned to in-person play in Week 5, with every other game on stage. With the playoffs also comes the return of in-person press access to the LEC Berlin studio.

Fnatic are the fifth seed in the LEC Summer Playoffs. They must battle through the lower bracket gauntlet to progress and qualify for the World Championships. It is unknown whether Adam or Fnatic will return to the LEC stage if they progress pass the first round. The current Center for Disease Control guidance on isolation for a positive test result is 10 days passed the onset of symptoms.

#LEC Update:

Sunday’s Playoffs Match will be played online.

I appreciate @FNATIC & @TeamVitality handling these unforeseen circumstances so professionally together with our #LEC Team.

Wishing you a swift recovery @Ricadam_lol! https://t.co/ifADBlXNdJ

— Maximilian Peter Schmidt (@RiotMAXtheX) August 13, 2021

Fnatic’s statement on the COVID-19 positive test

“In these situations, our first priority is to ensure the safety of our team and the support staff,” Fnatic’s statement reads. “We collaborated with Riot Games to ensure the team can still complete their fixtures in a manner that wouldn’t disadvantage the team and came up with a solution which will allow Adam to compete remotely while the rest of our players will play in-office. Until then, our focus is solely set on ensuring our players have as much support as possible going into their first match of the playoffs and hopefully continuing out playoffs run.”