LEC 2019: Salty Tiers Part 2 – Who will take the top spot?

4. Origen

Legendary team Origen return after disgracing themselves in 2017’s EU LCS spring split. They originally entered the European scene as one of the most hyped teams in 2014 made up of former legends Xpeke and Paul “sOAZ” Boyer. Under the watchful eye of CS:GO’s most dominant team Astralis’ head backer RFRSH, Origen rises from the dead with head EU fanboy Martin “Deficio” Lynge as general manager and André “Guilhoto” Guilhoto as head coach.

Fielding a roster of old legends Alfonso “Mithy” Aguirre Rodríguez and Erlend “Nukeduck” Våtevik Holm in the support and mid-lane roles respectively. Barney “Alphari” Morris sits up in the top-lane; known as one of the smartest top-laners in Europe, we’ll certainly see evidence of this in their upcoming games. After a disappointing 2018 under the Unicorns of Love banner Jonas “Kold” Andersen will definitely have something to prove going into the LEC 2019 Spring Split, but since he’ll be playing alongside significantly better players than he has in the past, I foresee great things from this guy.

Rookie ADC Patrik (formerly known as Sheriff during his stint on H2K’s disastrous 2018 Summer Split… which we don’t talk about anymore) will be looking to prove himself this year. The poor fella tried his absolute damnedest to 1v9 every game last year and we saw glimmers of hope for the young prodigy which give me hope for him going forward, but under kingmaker Mithy I don’t think I need to worry about him too much.

3. Fnatic

“FNATIC IN 3RD MICHAEL? WORLD FINALISTS IN 3RD PLACE? WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU THINKING YOU BOOSTED ANIMAL?!” I hear you ask…

Now hear me out. Fnatic have lost their superstar mid-laner Caps and their reliable veteran in the top lane sOAZ; the latter of which they would pull out when they were in dire straits, and on top of that they’ve brought on board a new mid-laner who is arguably the weakest prospect of the 3 rookies entering the LEC this year. Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek enters Fnatic with colossal shoes to fill, while he definitely is a very promising talent, I just don’t see him being the 1 in a million player that Baby Faker was.

Looking to the top lane in 2019 we see Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau, known for his strength on mage and bruiser picks. If the meta stays as it is currently, this won’t be a problem but if we see ourselves heading back towards a tank meta I’d start to worry about Bwipo’s ability to provide the same kind of stability that his former teammate sOAZ did. Next up in jungle we find the single greatest Lee Sin player the West has ever produced, the Danish god chiselled from marble himself – Mr Broxah. Broxah’s outstanding game sense and highlight-worthy plays were arguably the main things that propelled Fnatic forward in 2018 and took them to the World finals.

And as usual, the bottom lane led by Martin “Rekkles” Larsson will remain the late-game insurance policy that it has always been.