Fnatic officially part ways with ONIC Esports

After one short but very successful year, the partnership between Fnatic and ONIC Esports is over.

ONIC Esports announced that its Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) division is parting ways with European organisation Fnatic. The Fnatic-ONIC partnership came to an end with the expiration of the six-month deal penned by the two organisations for the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2024.

Under the Fnatic ONIC banner, the partnership brought success to the Fnatic and ONIC names in MLBB. While ONIC's main Indonesian squad didn't make as big a splash, its Philippines branch, Fnatic ONIC Philippines, were crowned as champions of the M6 World Championship,

The decision to not renew the Fnatic-ONIC partnership has been speculated to be caused by the new regulations for EWC 2025 regarding the joint venture between two organisations, which required any partnered organisations to field the same name in each of the titles contested unless it was a partnership not for the Club Championship points and agreed that their points would not be merged. This meant that Fnatic.ONIC must use ONIC Esports or Fnatic's name for every title they participate in unless the publisher requested exceptions.

This regulation update adhered to the new Club program for the EWC, the EWC Foundation Club Partner Program. Forty clubs from around the world will get the chance to receive six-figure base funding from the EWCF to grow their organisation in 2025. Up to eight of these forty clubs were selected from the Championship Point tally in EWC 2024, and the rest were chosen from an open application.

The end of the partnership between ONIC Esports and Fnatic has also raised questions regarding other joint ventures in MLBB, such as those Falcons AP.Bren and NIP Flash . With the new EWC regulations forcing organisations to compete under the same name for every title in the EWC, not just MLBB, it will be interesting to see how both parties treat these partnerships moving forward.