Former Karmine Corp head coach Yanis “Striker” Kella sparked controversy on Jan. 8 after he mentioned behavior issues and divergence of opinions as reasons for parting ways with Martin “Rekkles” Larsson during the 2023 League of Legends offseason.
After a 2022 season where the team failed to meet expectations, Rekkles left Karmine Corp to return with Fnatic on Dec. 15. And now that he’s moving on with LEC’s Team BDS, former coach Striker mentioned Rekkles as a reason why Karmine Corp’s performance stagnated in Summer in a Q&A live session on Twitch.
Karmine and Rekkles mutually said his signing was a “long-term” decision at the start of the year, but it appeared the dream was cut short. Striker said the coaching staff didn’t wish to continue with Rekkles for the 2023 season due to a divergence of opinions.
The former head coach also mentioned repeated behavioral issues that led them to alert Rekkles, but that the coaching staff wasn’t able to fully take action to fix them.
“If you bench him, you can’t transfer him the following season, because people understand he’s problematic. There were no fit solution for the ongoing year nor the offseason,” he said on Twitter.
Following backlash from fans, he then alluded to occurrences where Rekkles would “disrespect” the staff (“someone who [paid his] salary”) by refusing to play scrims or attend team-building events, such as “joining a team dinner because [his] cab wasn’t here when he left the airport.”
In the live session, he mentioned negative behavior and lack of motivation as reasons for the team stagnating in the Summer Split, as well as divergence of opinions in terms of strategy, such as picking Yuumi in the bot lane.
He said Hantera wasn’t against this decision, but that “other negative reactions” in the team pushed him toward other champions. He also confirmed the team struggled with shotcalling in the bot lane. When those issues arose, the team would start to tumble.
“I tried to battle negativity because it didn’t enable performance, especially towards the end of Spring. It proved useful since we won the EUM, even if Summer didn’t go as well,” he explained.
Rekkles and Karmine Corp have yet to speak on the matter. Meanwhile, the team still has to officially reveal its official 2023 roster for the LFL, which is planned to kick off in one week. According to rumors, only top laner Cabochard and mid laner Saken will remain on the team.
Striker will serve as an assistant coach for Team BDS in the 2023 LEC Winter Season, which starts on Jan. 21.
