League of Legends LEC: Preseason Player Rankings

European League of Legends returns to our screens on January 24th! To prepare for the first weekend of games, we’ve ranked every LEC player in every role.

For the second consecutive year, a European team made it to the World Championship final in 2019. And for the second year in a row, they came home empty-handed. Is 2020 the year an LEC team finally lifts the most prestigious trophy in League of Legends?

They’ve certainly got the players for it. Five European talents made it to the highly anticipated Worlds Top 20 list last year, with the likes of Nemesis, Xerxe, and Rekkles close behind. Combine this with the experience a number of highly regarded rookies gained during their first LEC season, and maybe the LEC are destined for success this year.

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There are also several new faces in the league this year that could increase the level of competition in Europe’s top division. 12 rookies will be taking to the LEC stage in the Spring Split on five different rosters, and this new blood will undoubtedly be determined to upstage the veterans in their debut LEC season.

Beyond just rookies, there has been a total of 21 transfers during the off-season meaning teams, players, and viewers will need time to adjust to the new line-ups and judge the new faces and how they mesh with their teammates.

We’re getting straight into it though. Without any competitive games being played so far in 2020, we’ll be ranking every starting player against the others in their role, while highlighting a few of the more interesting placements along the way.

When comparing players it’s important to take into account a number of factors, most notably individual talent, experience in Europe’s top division, and established synergy with teammates.

Top Lane

1. Martin “Wunder” Hansen
2. Barney “Alphari” Morris
3. Lucas “Cabochard” Simon-Meslet
4. Gabriel “Bwipo” Rau
5. Dae-han “Expect” Ki
6. Finn “Finn” Wiestål
7. Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu
8. Toni “Sacre” Sabalić
9. Danny “Dan Dan” Le Comte
10. Andrei “Orome“ Popa

3. VIT Cabochard
The one glimmer of hope from Team Vitality’s dismal 2019 performance was Cabochard. Weighed down by his borderline inting teammates and forced to 1v9 from the top lane without much jungle assistance, somehow the Frenchman made it out of last year without having a breakdown or dropping down the top lane tier list.

Now paired with three new teammates, including fellow countryman Skeanz in the jungle, there are high hopes for both Cabochard and Vitality in 2020 with a ton of potential on the roster. Being the only non-support player with prior experience in the LEC, it’s expected that the top laner will have a huge role on the team in the Spring Split and may become a primary carry if the meta allows it.

9. MSF Dan Dan
Despite playing just ten games in the LEC last season, Dan Dan is somehow the most experienced player on the 2020 Misfits Gaming starting line-up. The other four members have made zero appearances at the highest level of European League of Legends and only have five appearances in any global top division between them (All from Bvoy on JD Gaming, LPL 2019 Spring).

As the most impressive rookie on Misfits’ makeshift LEC roster last year, there’s no doubt that Dan Dan deserved a permanent place on the starting roster after the rebuild. Whether he can carry four LEC rookies towards playoffs is an entirely different matter, however.

Jungle

1. Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski
2. Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir
3. Kim “Trick” Gang-yun
4. Kacper “Inspired” Słoma
5. Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek
6. Marc “Caedrel” Lamont
7. Erberk “Gilius” Demir
8. Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz
9. Zhiqiang “Shadow” Zhao
10. Duncan “Skeanz” Marquet

2. OG Xerxe
Selfmade and Nemesis can have the Rookie of the Split awards, G2 can have the MVP awards, but award for most improved player of 2019 definitely goes to Xerxe. From a mid-tier, barely relevant jungler in 2018, Xerxe went on to become one of the most highly-anticipated and feared junglers of the World Championship due to his ability to completely control early games and set up his team for success.

When his contract with Splyce expired during the offseason, there’s no doubt that several teams would have been interested in signing the Romanian jungler. His preferred destination was Origen despite their lackluster year and he now joins two other new arrivals in a refreshed roster.

If Xerxe is allowed to retain his playstyle from Splyce and continue to force a slow-paced, fully controlled early game, then Origen will almost definitely improve on their 2019 struggles this season.

3. SK Trick
Trick was probably the most impressive LEC jungler that didn’t make it to the World Championship, which is saying something because there were many talented junglers in Europe last year. The South Korean’s early game control and intelligent gank pathing transformed a mediocre Schalke 04 team, that finished 7th in the Spring Split before he joined, into playoffs contenders.

For some reason, despite an extremely strong Summer Split performance, Trick was allowed to leave Schalke 04 and join SK Gaming for 2020.

Now on a much less experienced roster, the jungler will have his work cut out to aid the likes of Sacre and Jenax through the early game and set them up to carry in the later stages. But this is a challenge the former G2 man will undoubtedly relish.