LEC 2019: Salty Tiers Part 1

Counting down the days. Ticking off the calendar. Our prayers for the return of European League of Legends’ have been answered; oh Riot you are a generous god. In just a week’s time, our 10 teams will grace the stage for the first day of the inaugural split of the newly franchised LEC.

Looking back over the off-season it’s been a wild ride; European legends return from the savage lands of NA, Kang “GorillA” Beom-hyeon leaves one of the strongest rosters in the LCK to make his home at Misfits Gaming and the absolute madman Luka “Perkz” Perković migrates his way down to the bottom lane leaving a void in the mid-lane that could only have been filled by the one and only Rasmus “Caps” Winther.

Here in part 1 I give you my unlucky few. The 4 teams I see not making the spring playoffs.

10. SK Gaming

In last place, we find a returning old guard team.  Long gone are the days of taking 1st place and fielding world-class talents like Svenskeren and FORG1VEN, this once legendary team finds itself coming back into a world that it left behind and in their absence have been vastly surpassed by old rivals Fnatic and new veterans Misfits and G2. Whilst this roster has a couple of gems in players like Jorge “Werlyb” Casanovas Moreno-Torres, Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek & Juš “Crownshot” Marušič; all of whom were taken wholesale for the buzzworthy European Masters team MAD Lions E.C. I do take umbrage with the pickup of former SKT T1 sub Choi “Pirean” Jun-sik in the mid lane, I just genuinely think that importing a mid laner in Europe (you know, the region renowned for grooming world class mid-laners) is the completely wrong move and just shows how out of touch this organisation really is.

Alternate choices for mid-lane that could have opened up future choices for importing were rookie players like; LIDER, Pretty or NoWay.

9. Rogue

Pulling up in the penultimate place is the newly formed team, Rogue. Backed by EDM legend Steve Aoki and world-famous band Imagine Dragons; looking at the roster that Rogue has managed to field going into the 2019 LEC Season you can see the ghost of Team ROCCAT still haunting the studio in Berlin. Martin “HeaQ” Kordmaa, Kim “Profit” Jun-hyung and Kim “Wadid” Bae-in have all found themselves on ROCCAT’s roster within the last 2 years and I view all 3 of these players as middle-of-the-road and nothing to write home about. The 2 players on this team that I see performing well and giving this team a chance to make a playoff run are Chres “Sencux” Laursen and Mateusz “Kikis” Szkudlarek; the latter of which had a noticeable effect on the 2018 Vitality roster.

Rogue, if you’re listening; play through your strong mid-jungle duo. Give priority to Sencux and let he & Kikis steamroll the rest of the map.

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8. ExceL Esports

Rule Britannia. ExceL are bringing the steely British “never tell me the odds” attitude to the LEC. The relatively young team, first formed in 2015 have fielded a roster that is a mixture of time-tested veterans and exciting young talent. With a former EULCS champion in the form of Ki “Expect” Dae-han  sitting in the top-lane and sturdy players like Fabian “Exileh” Schubert & Raymond “kaSing” Tsang in mid and support respectively. Where I believe this roster’s real spark of life comes from are the promising young jungler Marc “Caedrel” Robert Lamont and Jesper “Jeskla” Klarin Strömberg; the latter of whom found himself as the main linchpin keeping the Movistar Riders in the top 4 during LVP SuperLiga 2018 Summer Split & Playoffs.

With smart and mechanically gifted players like Caedrel and Jeskla as the team’s “X-Factor” players alongside their reliable compatriots, ExceL really do have all the weapons in their arsenal to make a surge into the playoffs. And maybe even to win? #ItsComingHome

7. FC Schalke 04

Now, this is what I’d argue is my most controversial prediction. Schalke; the finals contenders for the 2018 Summer Split… In 7th place? Yes and here’s why; stylistic mismatching. I genuinely feel like this team just will not work at all. You look at Jonas “Memento” Elmarghichi, the man is by no means a slouch in the jungle but his main focus on early game doesn’t really gel with the rest of his team, you look towards the topside of the map towards Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu who isn’t exactly renowned for his hard-carry pressure-absorbing playstyle, he historically is more at home on tanks like Sion & Maokai. Looking towards Elias “Upset” Lipp and Lee “IgNar” Dong-geun; the latter of which is famously one of the most HAM support players of all time (lets not forget his famous Fervor of Battle Leona securing first blood against SKT T1’s Bang & Wolf during the 2017 World Championship.) Take that absolute animal and pair him with Upset; one of the safest and least aggressive ADCs in the entirety of the EU scene.

So thats it for this week, I’d like to close this by saying that absolutely any of these teams could make playoffs. Miracles happen and all of these teams have multiple players that can sign in clutch moments. And in this newly franchised system with more parity between the top and bottom teamswe should hopefully never see another team going 2-16 ever again (Sorry Veteran, I still love ya.)

Don’t agree with the bottom four? Genuinely believe #ItsComingHome? Let us know in the comments and try to predict the order of my top 6. Or give us yours.