EU Masters Spring 2020: The Top 5 Teams in the Main Event

#4 – BT Excel

🇪🇸 Rosendo “Send0o” Fuentes (Top)
🇩🇰 Christian “Taxer” Vendelbo (Jungle)
🇳🇱 Jordan “Special” Scheffer (Mid)
🇬🇧 Matthew “Deadly” Smith (ADC)
🇬🇧 Raymond “kaSing” Tsang (Support)

Many will be surprised to see the United Kingdom’s second seed here, and not Fnatic.Rising. As mentioned earlier, BT Excel had an undefeated regular season and won their next four playoff games afterward. Unfortunately, they were dramatically reverse swept by Fnatic during the grand finals of the UKLC.

However, a poor run of games does not define a team, and respect has to be given to their regular season and early-playoff performances. This roster is impressive on paper and could be the United Kingdom’s best chance to date to take home the region’s first EU Masters trophy.

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Any European League of Legends fan will, of course, recognize the name kaSing who has had a storied career. He has played for several LEC teams over the years: Supa Hot Crew, H2K, Vitality, Splyce, and Excel. He has also attended the World Championships, a rare honor among EU Masters players.

Top laner Send0o played a couple of games for G2 Esports in 2017 Summer while starting top Ki “Expect” Dae-han was at home in Korea. Ever since leaving the G2 organization, he has been playing for BT Excel, attending EU Masters twice and faltering during the first round of the knockout stage both times.

Mid laner Special is this roster’s star-player, winning five Player of the Game awards (the most in the league). When the Dutchman was subbed in for Excel in 2019 Spring, the team looked much stronger. The Excel organization will be keen to hold onto Special for possibly a future spot on their LEC team.

Taxer is Excel’s franchise player, playing for the team for over three years. He has won the UKLC twice with the team, having his third title ripped away from him in Spring by Fnatic. The organization puts a lot of trust in the Dane, retaining him through several iterations of Excel.

Rounding out the roster is Deadly who has returned to the UK scene after several years playing in Spain’s Superliga. He was a member of the runner-up Vodafone Giants roster during last split’s European Masters, playing with now-LEC players Petr “denyk” Haramach and Rookie of the Split Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz. Deadly is very important to this roster, putting in consistently good performances throughout the course of the split.

BT Excel will be competing in the aforementioned Group A with GamersOrigin, Team GamerLegion, and YDN Gamers. The UK team will have to be on top form to fend off close rivals GamersOrigin and to avoid being upset by Team GamerLegion and YDN Gamers.

BT Excel not advancing through this group would be an unexpected turn of events, but anything can happen. If they play to their potential, they will be a serious contender to win it all.