They got the most hype before the Spring Split, but can they live up to the acquired names in the summer?
They tried last summer, they tried this spring, but maybe the LEC 2022 Summer Split will be the season for Team Vitality to finally live up to the hype surrounding the team! And fans only have to wait a few days, as the part of the 2022 LEC begins this Friday!
Team Vitality was never among the strongest teams in the LEC, but they managed to make playoffs in both the 2019 Spring and Summer Splits, even though they got knocked out immediately in both seasons. They had a huge falloff in 2020, where they finished in 10th place in Spring and in 9th in the Summer, and they couldn’t stabilize for 2021 even after changing most of the roster in the Summer and Spring. Signing former Fnatic jungler Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek and AD-mid specialist Adam “LIDER” Ilyasov gained them a lot of attention.
They managed to somewhat live up to the hype by making playoffs again after getting 6th place in the 2021 Summer Regular Season, but got immediately knocked out by Fnatic in playoffs, losing to Selfmade’s former team 2-3.
They went even bigger for 2022, managing to get both Barney “Alphari” Morris and Luka “Perkz” Perkovic back from the LCS, while also signing two-time LEC Champion Matyás “Carzzy” Orság from MAD Lions. All of the community and even the team said that anything other than the Spring Championship title was not enough for this star-studded team, but the reality turned out to be quite different from what everyone imagined.
Team Vitality went 0-3 in the first superweek, which later turned out to happen because of COVID and the members being sick. Perkz and co. went 2-0 in the second week, so there was some hope, but they couldn’t become as dominant as everyone hoped, going 0-2 again in Week 5, then 1-2 in Week 8. While they had 2-0 showings in Weeks 4 and 7 respectively, they lost to both MAD Lions and Excel Esports twice.
They finished 6th place with a 9-9 record, which was no less than a failure for ex-G2 player Perkz and the once strongest toplaner of the LCS, Alphari. Team Vitality went on to compete in the Spring Playoffs, but they only managed to beat Excel Esports, and even Erlend “nukeduck” Vatevick Holm and his teammates could win 2 games in that series. The French superteam ultimately finished 5th in the playoffs, getting knocked out by losing to G2 Esports 0-3.
The team had some issues, the biggest being one that Elements fought with back in 2015: too many star players in a team just doesn’t work out. Everyone on the roster wanted to carry, so someone always had to give up their preferred playstyle so someone else could shine. The formula that worked was that Selfmade got to do his thing while Perkz and Alphari had to play more supportive picks – while Carzzy was rarely in the equation, as it turned out that he was significantly weaker without Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser.
This summer, Team Vitality changed some things in the roster. They brought on former World Champion Kang “Haru” Min-seung in the place of Selfmade, and even got a backup jungler, Zhou “Bo” Yang-Bo. Haru and Bo should bring stability to the team and also let Perkz and Alphari realize their full potential as the carries of Team Vitality. The management also got a backup ADC, signing Petter “Hjarnan” Freyschuss, who is returning to play after spending Spring Split as a positional and assistant coach for Vitality. But there’s a possibility that management think that Carzzy should be swapped out for the veteran Swede.
Team Vitality should look a lot more consistent this Summer, but they have a tough competition in G2, Rogue, Fnatic and even MAD Lions to make it to the Playoffs – and the 2022 World Championship.
You’ll find more LEC Summer Split previews, esports news and game guides, as well as League of Legends betting tips, right here on ESTNN.
