Last offseason wasn’t the spiciest for the League of Legends European Championship between spring and summer split. However, there were a few intriguing roster changes in the LEC that didn’t go through that potentially could have changed a lot how things play out this spring.
Sources close to Upcomer confirmed these deals were in the works. Here’s a look at what could have happened and why it didn’t as well as the team’s results since.
MAD Vetheo
After missing out on playoffs in spring, MAD Lions decided to bench mid laner Steven “Reeker” Chen. Two mid laners were considered for the position: Vincent “Vetheo” Berrié and Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer. Vetheo was still contracted with Misfits Gaming; however, Misfits might have been willing to deal the French player for a decent price. Despite a split off from competitive play, Nisqy was also under a contract. His team, Fnatic, ended up selling him, and the former Cloud9 mid laner and worlds competitor landed on MAD Lions.
After three weeks of competition, MAD Lions sit at a record of 4-3. Would that be different had they gotten Vetheo, and who would Misfits have in the mid lane in that case? Those are questions we may never find an answer for.
XL EMENES
During the offseason, Excel Esports bootcamped in South Korea. While they didn’t change their roster at the end, the team did travel with mid laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo as sixth player.
EMENES had an impressive performance last spring in the Northern League of Legends Championship with JD|XL (and still is this summer). Sources tell Upcomer that the mid laner was sharing scrim time with mid laner Erlend “nukeduck” Våtevik Holm during the bootcamp, and there was a possibility of EMENES playing in the LEC.
While this promotion of EMENES didn’t happen, JD|XL did acquire mid laner Adrian “Mrozku” Skonieczny, who could have played for their Academy team if EMENES was promoted. Now, Mrozku is a substitute to EMENES.
Currently, Excel are 5-2 in the LEC and tied for first place with Fnatic and Rogue. Their Academy team JD|XL is dominating the NLC right now with 12-1 record, good for first place in the league.
VIT Skeanz
Instead of jungler Kang “Haru” Min-seung, Vitality could have fielded jungler Duncan “Skeanz” Marquet in their LEC roster this summer. The decision between both players was difficult and came in quite late in the offseason. While we don’t know if this affected the decision, keeping Skeanz in a successful Vitality.Bee roster might be an advantage for Vitality. Indeed, their Academy team reached semifinals last European Masters before falling to Karmine Corp in a 3-2 loss. Vitality.Bee even eliminated the SuperLiga Champions, Fnatic TQ, in quarterfinals.
Like MAD Lions, Vitality are currently in fourth place of the LEC with 4-3 record.
AST Oscarinin, Maxi & Rhuckz
Astralis considered many options during the offseason, and one of them was an offer they made to Fnatic. The LEC organization was interested in buying Fnatic TQ top laner Óscar “Oscarinin” Muñoz Jiménez as well as teammates jungler Magnus “MAXI” Kristensen and support Rúben “rhuckz” Barbosa in a package deal. All three of those players competed in Spain in the spring split and won their national league quite convincingly.
With such a change, Astralis would have had a roster with a very different look this split. Instead, they ended up signing two players with previous Tier 1 League of Legends experience, top laner Kiss “Vizicsacsi” Tamás and jungler Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir, and South Korean support Lee “JeongHoon” Jeong-hoon.
Expectations for Astralis were low following a 10th-place finish last split. However, the team currently holds a 3-4 after three weeks of competition. Could that have been better with three of the last SuperLiga champions in their first LEC splits?
Sometimes a single change can decide the fate of an LEC team, especially considering that one change can snowball in several others. However, we still have six more weeks of competition to figure out which changes were possibly a mistake and which decisions were the right call.
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