Team Heretics has signed legendary former Fnatic toplaner Paul "sOAZ" Boyer as a positional coach for its LEC roster, the latest change in a staff overhaul that began in May when Erlend "Nukeduck" Våtevik Holm arrived as head coach. In the same move, former Fnatic and Misfits midlaner Fabian "Febiven" Diepstraten has been let go from his positional coach role. Both changes were confirmed on July 6.
The reasoning behind each is fairly logical. sOAZ, a former Worlds finalist, will work specifically with rookie toplaner Sebastian "Tracyn" Wojtoń, and by team director Niklas Geiß's account has actually been collaborating with him for a while already, with this only now being made official. It marks sOAZ's return to coaching after more than a year away, his last role being with NRG, whom he helped guide to Worlds in 2023 before departing after the 2024 season. Febiven's exit, meanwhile, comes down to redundancy. He had been the positional coach for midlaner Tolga "Serin" Ölmez, but with Nukeduck being a long-time former midlaner himself, the head coach can cover that role directly, making a dedicated mid coach unnecessary.
A Heavy Investment in a Tough Rescue
The moves reflect just how much Heretics are throwing at a season that started in freefall. After finishing a promising fourth in the LEC Versus regular season, the team collapsed following ill-fated roster changes, ultimately finishing dead last in Spring with a single series win and just three of 20 individual games. The rebuild since has been extensive, with the summer roster now reading Tracyn top, Daglas jungle, Serin mid, Hype bot, and Way support, after academy promotion Kacper "Daglas" Dagiel replaced the departed Théo "Sheo" Borile and former Misa botlaner Byeon "Hype" Jeong-hyeon came in for Ice.
The staff investment is notable, with Geiß confirming Heretics now have 12 members of staff working with the team in Berlin, while sOAZ operates remotely, alongside the reunion of Nukeduck with his former FlyQuest colleague Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodríguez, a duo that reached Worlds twice together. The sOAZ-for-Febiven swap also fits a wider LEC trend this year of former pros flooding into coaching roles, with names like Maxlore, Alphari, and Odoamne all taking up recent positions. Whether all this accumulated experience can salvage a campaign that began so poorly is the real test, but Team Heretics are clearly sparing little to try.
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