League of Legends Where Are They Now? 2015 EU LCS Summer Final – Fnatic vs. Origen
Origen
Top Lane: Paul “sOAZ” Boyer (currently at Misfits Gaming)
Origen may have achieved back-to-back European runners-up performances in 2015 Summer and 2016 Spring, but soon after they began to falter and followed with back-to-back promotion tournament appearances, the second of which saw them fall to the Challenger Series. One promotion tournament experience was enough for French top laner sOAZ to jump ship and return to Fnatic in early 2018.
sOAZ joins Rekkles and a host of other names in being a legendary figure at Fnatic and a key component of their illustrious European history. In his second spell, the Frenchman helped Fnatic lift two EU LCS trophies, as well as featuring in two Worlds appearances. However, with the introduction of new top laner Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau, sOAZ wasn’t satisfied with sharing playing time and opted to leave the Worlds runners-up for Misfits Gaming in 2019.
Much like Febiven, sOAZ was part of an exciting roster that looked destined to challenge for the LEC title at the beginning of the Spring Split. But, following their collapse and failure to qualify for the playoffs, sOAZ and his team need to buck their ideas up in the second half of the season if they want to have any chance of making it to Worlds at the end of the year.
Jungle: Maurice “Amazing” Stückenschneider (currently at FC Schalke 04)
Amazing has played for an amazing number of organisations during his career, but only three came after his days at Origen. First of all, he followed in the footsteps of his former top laner by joining Fnatic after Origen’s struggles with promotion tournaments. He may have spent most of his time playing for Fnatic’s Academy team, but there’s no doubt that he aided in the development of Fnatic’s new superstar in the jungle, Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen.
It would be no surprise if Amazing was unhappy with his playing time at Fnatic, and so he elected to join Mysterious Monkeys for the 2017 Summer Split, during which time he failed to help retain their place in the EU LCS and was relegated at the end of the season. From this point, the German jungler took a break from competitive play and joined the Riot broadcast team as an analyst, spending the first half of the 2018 season on the analyst desk and occasionally casting.
An opportunity presented itself in the form of a starting spot on FC Schalke 04 as their jungler Milo “Pride” Wehnes didn’t seem ready to make the leap from the Challenger scene to the EU LCS. Against all odds, Amazing helped transform Schalke from an eighth-place team to Summer Split Playoff finalists, and almost guided his new side to Worlds qualification in the process. There was no better time to take a step back, and the German did so, taking up a coaching role at Schalke’s Academy team Schalke Evolution.
Recently, Amazing announced his desire to return to the competitive scene and left Schalke to pursue his goals. With a number of teams struggling to find their footing over the last few months, could we see Amazing back in the LEC in the Summer Split?
Mid Lane: Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martínez (currently at Origen)
While this list is clearly crammed with roster swaps and cross-region transfers, xPeke has remained at his own organisation since its inception, instead preferring to constantly change roles within Origen.
xPeke has experienced the extreme highs and lows of owning an esports organisation throughout Origen’s history as they’ve gone from the Challenger Series, to World Championship semi-finals, all the way back down to relegation all within five years. Up until their relegation from the EU LCS in 2017, xPeke always remained on the roster in some capacity, ranging from coach, to mid lane, to AD Carry, to even support.
Following their drop to the Challenger Series, it’s been rather quiet for Origen fans. The team has mostly been invisible, other than a Spring EU Masters triumph in 2018. However now they’ve finally returned to the peak of European League of Legends and are back challenging amongst the best EU teams. This Sunday we could see xPeke’s organisation lift their first ever top division European trophy, but they’ll have to get past his former team on the way there.