Fabian “GrabbZ” Lohmann is a League of Legends coach who was raised within the European community, and he made it to where he is by hard work. The top of his career was when he signed with G2 Esports, and he gave them their most successful years by dominating LEC, winning an MSI and making it to Worlds finals.
Before he moves on to his next chapter at LEC 2022 Spring, let’s have a look at his career.
Starting his coaching career at one of the most prestigious European organizations, Team ROCCAT, GrabbZ couldn’t get the team to the playoffs. But his performance and his view of League of Legends was enough to get him an offer from G2 Esports. Together with G2, both reached new highs in their careers. With the help of an analysis of GrabbZ below, you can guess what he is capable of at Team BDS after that.
GrabbZ’s coaching style
GrabbZ is a coach who has a deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of his players, and he is known to create a game plan around those. He shaped G2’s playstyle around this mindset for years. Although he is not successful every single time, GrabbZ trusted Mikyx as a player who loved making plays in the early stages of the game. Thus, G2’s early game was led by Mikyx, cooperating with Jankos and the rest of the laners.
When the bot lane had Hjarnan and Wadid in 2018, a bot lane relatively worse than their opponents’, GrabbZ made the team’s superstar Perkz the main focus, and the early game was in the hands of Jankos. Hjarnan and Wadid took the supporting roles and Wadid took the engage duty on himself, while Wunder, Jankos and Perkz acted as the carries of the team, and that led G2 to upset RNG in the quarterfinals of Worlds 2018.
An open-minded coach
This mindset led G2 to the MSI 2021 championship, and Worlds 2019 final, the peak of their performance. In 2019, Caps joined the team, and Perkz setting up a strong bot lane with Mikyx helped the team get even more comfortable around the map. The flexibility and skill cap of G2 was one of the highest, they had all the cards and they used that very well. GrabbZ proved himself as an open-minded coach.
However, at the Worlds 2019 final, FunPlus Phoenix was better than them. G2 was not bad, they were the second-best, but FPX, a similar team with a similar mindset, were able to stomp G2 in the finals, using the synergy between Tian and Doinb.
2020 was another good year for G2 Esports, dominating LEC and getting eliminated in the Worlds 2020 semifinals. However, after they weren’t able to get to any international tournaments when they had Rekkles on bot lane, it was time for rebuilding at G2 Esports. I don’t think the decision to change GrabbZ was personal, G2 and ocelote decided there needed to be a change and that included everyone except Jankos and Caps.
Stats of GrabbZ
Under GrabbZ’s management, G2 Esports achieved lots of accolades.
- 2nd at EU LCS 2018 Spring Playoffs
- 1st at Rift Rivals 2018
- 1st at EU Regional Finals 2018
- 3-4th at Worlds 2018
- 1st at LEC 2019 Spring Playoffs
- 1st at MSI 2019
- 1st at Rift Rivals 2019
- 1st at LEC 2019 Summer Playoffs
- 2nd at Worlds 2019
- 1st at LEC 2020 Spring Playoffs
- 1st at LEC 2020 Summer Playoffs
- 3-4th at Worlds 2020
- 3rd at LEC 2021 Spring Playoffs
- 4th at LEC 2021 Summer Playoffs
During GrabbZ’ spell, G2 Esports was one of the most dominating teams in the world. In 2018, the team had a 58.1% win rate. In 2019, it was 69.6%. In 2020, they had 67.5% and last year, in 2021, it fell back to 58.6%. Another thing that you could notice is GrabbZ’ players always played more than 10-15 champions during a year. He values flexibility.
Although he wasn’t that much unsuccessful, GrabbZ was one of the names that were let go by G2 after 2021. G2 is a team that aims for excellence, and they decided that introducing changes might trigger that reflex again. GrabbZ is an excellent coach, and he will be successful at Team BDS too. However, that won’t mean G2 was wrong to let him go. To decide, we must see what will happen in LEC 2022 Spring.
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