Retired Spanish professional League of Legends player Alvar "Araneae" Martin Aleñar is set to join European League Championship Series team Origen as its new coach in the coming days, sources close to the team tell ESPN. As a result, the team will part ways with current coach Nicholas "NicoThePico" Korsgaard.
Araneae is no stranger to Origen, as he was previously on its roster as a substitute jungler, the role he competed in during his professional career on SK Gaming, Millenium, Natus Vincere, Team ALTERNATE, and MeetYourMakers. Additionally, Araneae is a longtime friend and colleague of Origen owner Enrique "xPeke" Cedeño Martínez and top laner Paul "sOAZ" Boyer.
Since retiring from competitive play in 2014, Araneae has worked with a handful of teams across several regions. Originally, he was a coach for Fnatic in 2014, the team xPeke and sOAZ led to the 2014 World Championship. Following that, he took some time off before returning to coach Spanish amateur team Baskonia eSports in January 2016.
Araneae will have a big task on his hands as Origen is currently struggling to find its identity. Following the departure of former starting AD carry Konstantinos "FORG1VEN" Tzortziou-Napoleon, the team has used xPeke, a mid laner, as an AD carry instead. After losing its original bot lane Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen and Alfonso "mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez to G2 Esports, the team has produced inconsistent results.
The team has been outspoken about its opinion of its former coaches, specifically the departure of Tadayoshi "Hermit" Littleton, who is now the head coach for North American team NRG eSports. In December, sOAZ said on Twitter that "coaches = useless," while jungler Maurice "Amazing" Stückenschneider said that coaching in the West (Europe and North America) is not as impactful as coaching in the East (Korea and China).
Additionally, there have been private allegations that the team failed to pay Hermit for his services as Origen's analyst and coach last fall, sources close to both parties tell ESPN.
@MarcelFeldkamp @Thooorin @JRavenEsports i respect the fact that they try and it's gonna be better in the future but now coaches = useless
- Paul Boyer (@sOAZIZGOOD) December 11, 2015
@sOAZIZGOOD @SkumbagKrepo @MarcelFeldkamp @Thooorin @JRavenEsports coaching in the West is incomparable to the East, let's leave it at that
- Maurice (@Amazing_EU) December 11, 2015
Araneae will be the team's fifth coach in the past year following Hermit, Titus "LeDuck" Hafner, Nicolai "Hazel" Larsen and NicoThePico.
Origen did not respond for a comment by the time of this article's publication.