LEC Summer Split is less than a week away, so let’s see how our teams stack up this season in our LEC Power Rankings.
European League of Legends is finally back after a long MSI break. It was a hectic season break filled with roster moves. There are multiple rookies entering the league, even though we are halfway into the season. We also saw some returning faces to the LEC.
These players aren’t the only ones returning as well. After the Spring Split Playoffs, fans will once again be allowed into the studio during the regular season. It has been nearly two years since we saw a live audience in the regular-season games.
Last split champions G2 had a good run during the MSI and they are coming into the Summer Split as the team to beat for the others. But most of the teams in the league had some changes, so let’s take a more detailed look at what is the expectation for each team.
The #LEC fashionably returns on June 17th! pic.twitter.com/oDOCcywuqR
— LEC (@LEC) June 13, 2022
10. Astralis
- Kiss ‘Vizicsacsi’ Tamás
- Andrei ‘Xerxe’ Dragomir
- Oliver ‘Dajor’ Ryppa
- Kasper ‘Kobbe’ Kobberup
- Lee ‘JeongHoon’ Jeong-hoon
Astralis made some changes after another last-place finish, but once again it seems to miss the mark. Zanzarah, promisq and WhiteKnight are no longer with the team, and not many will question these decisions, maybe except the latter. The problem is for some reason Astralis seems to not have a forward-looking plan.
Their new young support JeongHoon has some people singing his praises in Korea, but they also signed Vizicacsi and Xerxe. Both players are past their primes and neither were having particularly good performance in their previous teams. Combined with Dajor’s inconsistent performances and Kobbe also not playing to his previous level, I can’t see a future for this Astralis team. Not this split, and not the ones after.
9. Team BDS
- Tobiasz ‘Agresivoo’ Ciba
- Jakub ‘Cinkrof’ Rokicki
- Ilias ‘NUCLEARINT’ Bizriken
- Matthew Charles ‘xMatty’ Coombs
- Robert ‘Erdote’ Nowak
Spring Split was hard for the LEC’s newest team. They came into the league with a young roster, aiming to build for the future. Despite not many people being surprised about their ninth-place finish, most were disappointed by the team’s play. Coupled with the many rumors about bad team culture, especially around scrims, it was obvious there were changes needed.
So in their second split, they promoted two rookies from their Academy team that finished second in the LFL, Agresivoo and Erdote. These are good changes for the future as both are promising rookies, but I don’t think it will have too much of an impact for this season. While Cinkrof was a bright spot in BDS’s bad Spring, mid and ADC in LEC are stacked positions, and NUCLEARINT and xMatty haven’t proven they can hold their own.
8. SK Gaming
- Janik ‘JNX’ Bartels
- Erberk ‘Gilius’ Demir
- Daniel ‘Sertuss’ Gamani
- Jean ‘Jezu’ Massol
- Erik ‘Treatz’ Wessén
SK Gaming is in a weird spot. They have good pieces in the team, Treatz and Jezu bot lane can be impressive and JNX had some carry performances throughout his career. But the team as a whole isn’t necessarily performing enough to be a playoff team.
They didn’t have a bad Spring, finishing only two games behind the sixth playoff spot. Though keep in mind this was while MAD, VIT and G2 struggled the entire split. If they couldn’t capitalize on this opportunity, it will be hard to find another one. Their advantage over BDS and Astralis is that they have more players who have a record of performing in the LEC, and they didn’t make any roster swaps, so I expect them to have a good start. Still, don’t think it will be enough to push them into the playoffs.
7. Excel Esports
- Finn ‘Finn’ Wiestål
- Mark ‘Markoon’ van Woensel
- Erlend ‘nukeduck’ Våtevik Holm
- Patrik ‘Patrik’ Jírů
- Mihael ‘Mikyx’ Mehle
Ah, Excel, the perennial ‘just inches away from the playoffs’ team of the LEC. They at least broke the curse last split, finishing sixth for their first-ever playoffs. This came after replacing Advienne with Mikyx, a somewhat controversial decision among the community.
But the team looked good after the change with the coaching staff saying the experienced support helped a lot with the younger team’s macro calls, a help they certainly needed. Now, they are coming into the Summer with more prep time under their belts, looking for two consecutive playoffs. While they are a good team with good players, I think they just lack behind others like Misfits in the race.
6. Misfits Gaming
- Joel ‘Irrelevant’ Miro Scharoll
- Lucjan ‘Shlatan’ Ahmad
- Vincent ‘Vetheo’ Berrié
- Matúš ‘Neon’ Jakubčík
- Mertai ‘Mersa’ Sari
I mentioned Misfits, so let me talk about them. LEC Spring was great for them. Multiple top teams underperforming combined with an MVP performance from Vetheo meant a perfect storm that carried them to third place. But they couldn’t keep it up into the playoffs.
Now coming into the Summer, they made only one change replacing HiRit for Irrelevant from Misfits Premier. HiRit was mostly great for Misfits during his career, except last season for some reason. Irrelevant on the other hand is good, but still a rookie. With Shlatan and Mersa, it makes three young players that will have to play in front of a crowd for the first time. Not an easy task. I have them edging out Excel for the playoffs, but not with a wide margin.
5. Team Vitality
- Barney ‘Alphari’ Morris
- Kang ‘Haru’ Min-seung
- Luka ‘Perkz’ Perković
- Matyáš ‘Carzzy’ Orság
- Labros ‘Labrov’ Papoutsakis
Vitality as a team is hard to judge one way or the other. Fans and analysts split in half when it comes to expectations, some expecting them to dominate off the start and some thinking super teams are doomed to fail. Their Spring performances didn’t do much to instill confidence, and neither did the removal of Selfmade who many considered one of the better performers on the team.
There is no doubt Vitality lacks in the talent department, but are they really that better than everyone that they can make up for their lack of apparent synergy and bad macro play? Well, no, as we saw last split. First, their bot lane couldn’t compete with the best in the league, with Carzzy underperforming and Labrov still not showing his promised potential.
Alphari was dominating in lane but his impact left much to be desired, similar to what he showed in North America. Perkz on the other hand still cannot find his consistency after three splits in a row back in the mid-lane. No denying the talent, but if they cannot show it on the Rift, what good is that?
4. MAD Lions
- İrfan Berk ‘Armut’ Tükek
- Javier ‘Elyoya’ Prades Batalla
- Yasin ‘Nisqy’ Dinçer
- William ‘UNF0RGIVEN’ Nieminen
- Norman ‘Kaiser’ Kaiser
MAD Lions were maybe the biggest surprise of the last split. After two consecutive championships and good international performances, the Lions missed the playoffs altogether. Most thought this was due to losing Humanoid, one of the best mids in the league and their shot caller. Not-so-good performance from their rookie mid from Reeker didn’t help the cause either, and we saw him replaced by the veteran Nisqy at the break.
Coming into the Summer, MAD can improve a lot. UNF0RGIVEN had a good rookie split and Kaiser and Armut can bounce back. But the biggest strong point of MAD is their jungler. Elyoya has been one of the top junglers ever since he came into the LEC and we know what he is capable of. Now paired with Nisqy who is known to enable his junglers, I believe he will return to form and carry his team back to where they belong, in the Playoffs.
3. Fnatic
- Martin ‘Wunder’ Nordahl Hansen
- Iván ‘Razork’ Martín Díaz
- Marek ‘Humanoid’ Brázda
- Elias ‘Upset’ Lipp
- Zdravets ‘Hylissang’ Iliev Galabov
There is not much to say about Fnatic that hasn’t been said before. They had a good Spring, up until the point they no longer didn’t. Playoffs were tough, with almost every member underperforming and making unforced errors one after the other.
But it’s not that bleak. They still have the best bot lane in the West, they still have one of the best mid laners in the LEC. Wunder had a good Spring after a disappointing year at G2, and Razork was trending upwards towards the playoffs. With the crowds coming back, I expect this veteran roster the forget about the Spring and bounce back straight into it.
2. Rogue
- Andrei ‘Odoamne’ Pasc
- Kim ‘Malrang’ Geun-seong
- Emil ‘Larssen’ Larsson
- Markos ‘Comp’ Stamkopoulos
- Adrian ‘Trymbi’ Trybus
Rogue has not finished outside the top three for the last four splits, and there is no reason to expect it to happen now. Spring was great for the team, they lost Inspired but Malrang came in exceeding all expectations and Comp/Trymbi duo surprised most by dominating other bot lanes.
Adding these, two stable solo lanes with Odo and Larssen, there is almost no chance Rogue misses the playoffs, and they should be contending for that first-place finish once again.
1. G2 Esports
- Sergen ‘Broken Blade’ Çelik
- Marcin ‘Jankos’ Jankowski
- Rasmus ‘caPs’ Borregaard
- Victor ‘Flakked’ Lirola Tortosa
- Raphaël ‘Targamas’ Crabbé
Talking about first-place finishes, let’s touch on the champions. No one expected the lower bracket run of G2 during Spring Playoffs after their slow start to the Split. But remember, they were a new team with two rookies, and it takes time to adjust.
Now, their championship doesn’t mean they are now firing on all cylinders, as we saw them struggle in the later parts of the MSI. Still, I believe we saw more positives than negatives, mainly with Flakked and Targamas showing improvements. Add this to the crowd buff of Jankos and caPs, I believe G2 will start the Summer strong this time around.
