Update 4/25 2pm ET: Riot Games has released the brackets of the European open qualifier, which includes a team named "Chocolate Orange Fudge!", which is Fnatic Academy. That team consists of Werlyb, Impaler, SozPurefect, Exork, and former Fnatic starter Klaj, as reported earlier in this report.
The original story is below.
Just a day before the open qualifier bracket locks, European-based Fnatic has finalized the lineup for its Challenger squad Fnatic Academy, sources close to its players and the organization told ESPN.com Thursday.
Headlining the team will be support Johan "Klaj" Olsson, who was recently moved down to the Challenger squad from the main team. Klaj participated with the main Fnatic lineup for the majority of the spring split, after replacing former support Lewis "NoXiaK" Felix.
Klaj won't be the only former League Championship Series player participating in the squad either. Former Giants Gaming and Team Huma top laner Jorge "Werlyb" Casanovas and former Team Coast and Renegades: Banditos jungler Matthew "Impaler" Taylor will fill the team's top lane and jungle.
Laning with Klaj will be former Natus Vincere (Na`Vi) Challenger AD carry Sébastien "Exork" Lamorte. In its mid lane will be Exork's former teammate Hicham "SozPurefect" Tazrhini, who has participated in the Challenger scene since early 2014.
That team will participate in the European Challenger Series open qualifiers, which take place in the coming weeks. If they make it through that part of the qualification process, it will be thrown into another qualifier that will house six teams from national leagues -- with Renegades: Banditos, G2 Vodafone and Tricked eSports already locked in as three -- and the fifth- and sixth-place Challenger squads from last split, mousesports and SK Gaming.
Klaj's demotion to the Academy lineup comes an odd time. On Thursday night, Team SoloMid announced that former Fnatic star support Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim would be leaving the squad in hopes of returning to Europe. That has sparked speculation across social media that YellOwStaR might return to Fnatic's starting support role, which is now conveniently vacant.
Meanwhile, Werlyb will have another shot at making it back to the LCS, but with a significantly more equipped organization this time around. For the past few months, he was a member of Team Huma, which suffered from financial shortcomings, as reported by the Daily Dot.