The team which failed to qualify for the Spring Playoffs fields the same roster for the Summer. Check our LEC SK Gaming Summer Preview.
Just days before the start of the LEC Summer Split, the 10 teams only have one goal in mind: making it to the Summer Playoffs, so they can compete for the 3 European spots in the 2022 League of Legends World Championship.
For SK Gaming though, first, they would have to make it to the second half of the Summer Split, which they didn’t manage to do in Spring. The last time they qualified for Playoffs was last Spring, where they barely got ahead of Misfits Gaming. They finished the Regular Season with an 8-10 scoreline, but thanks to the two wins against the Rabbits, SK didn’t even have to play a tiebreaker. They lost their first match in the Lower Bracket against Fnatic, not making it very far in the Playoffs. In the Summer, they had to do some rough restructuring, forcing their talented support, Erik “Treatz” Wessén to the jungle after Kristian “TynX” Hansen left the team. While Treatz’s replacement, Philipp “Lilipp” Samuel Englert proved to be an integral part of the team, SK Gaming failed to qualify, finishing the Regular Season in 8th place, losing 13 out of 18 games.
Before this year’s Spring Split, Treatz returned home to the botlane, and the organization signed Erberk “Gilius” Demir in the jungle role. However, they lost midlaner Ersin “Blue” Gören, who left to play for Dignitas in the LCS. Schalke Evolution and Misfits Premier player Daniel “Sertuss” Gamani joined in his place. But this roster had a very rough start, only winning one match in the first 3 weeks of the Spring Split. After stabilizing a bit in weeks 4 and 5, they went 2-0 in week 6, beating Rasmus “Caps” Winther and G2 Esports in the process. But even after trying very hard, they only got a 7-11 scoreline and finished in 8th place, just behind MAD Lions, so the Playoffs were out of the question.
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While Treatz and Jean “Jezu” Massol had some good showings, and Sertuss didn’t share the fate of MAD Lions’ Steven “Reeker” Chen, standing his ground against the best of the best, the team’s performance was lacklustre. Gilius still hasn’t found his style after the nerfs of Olaf years back, and only had one good game in 8 weeks. In the second half of the Spring Regular Season, Janik “JNX” Bartels tried to be the carry of the squad. While it sometimes worked out, the German toplaner couldn’t do enough to drag SK Gaming out of the grave.
That’s why it’s strange that the management of SK Gaming decided to not change anything in the roster, so the same squad will try to make a difference this summer. Maybe they found some synergies which they can rely on in the offseason, but still, it will be a Herculean task to qualify for Playoffs for SK Gaming, let alone make it to Worlds.
