LEC takeaways 2023

It has been a surprising start for LEC this year. The teams that everyone expected to be on the top of the rankings are struggling to break into playoff spots, while teams who were said to have weak rosters are going toe to toe with teams like G2 Esports and Vitality, who have been labeled as the early favorites to win the first ever Winter Split of LEC.

In this article, we will be taking a look at some of the biggest takeaways from the first two weeks of LEC, and will talk about what they mean for the last week of the regular season.

5- XL has been a disappointment by a big margin but why?

 

In the power rankings before the split started, everyone was putting XL in the top five or top six of their rankings and rightfully so. They upgraded their roster massively, as they signed last year Spring Split’s MVP Vetheo, one of the most stable top laners in the history of LEC, Odoamne, and a support player who almost won MSI last season. The question is, where did it all go wrong?

The fans have been speculating the reason for the poor performances and a lot of the blame has been put onto the shoulders of the ADC, Patrik and Jungler, Xerxe. However, it would be wrong to say that these two players are bringing the team down and more so, are the reason that the team has only won a single game out of the six they have played. The real reason behind their poor performance are two major factors according to us: lack of cohesion and pressure to perform.

We all know that this is a new format being tried out by the LEC, where they are going to have three short splits rather than two long splits this year, meaning that teams aren’t going to get a lot of time to fix their problems and improve their teamwork, and those who can develop a good synergy as soon as possible will be able to have better showings than other teams. The lack of cohesion among XL players was clear in their game against Astralis, when Vetheo landed a Taliyah ultimate to separate his teammates from the enemy team. The ADC, Patrik was the one left out of range, while the other three were left stuck with the enemy team, and that showed how poor the communication is between them. It’s difficult to turn things around quickly but it’s evident that the players have different ideas regarding how they want to approach certain situations and it seems like an impossible task to bring them under the same vision in just one week.

We have also seen their mid laner, Vetheo making very uncharacteristic mistakes in game, and after their defeat against Astralis, he was left distraught and was the last one to leave the stage. It’s a difficult sight to see a player with such high potential being in this state, but it could be due to XL going ahead and signing Abbedagge, the former 100 Thieves and Schalke 04 mid laner to be their substitute mid. It feels like Vetheo feels that there is a constant target on his back, which might explain why he is trying to make over aggressive plays at times, but XL management also needs to understand that signing Abbedagge was a shortsighted decision that has had a negative impact on their main player’s morale.

It is almost a certainty at this stage that XL is going to miss out on playoffs this season, and might make changes in the off season, however the new format and poor management played a big part in the demise of this promising roster.

4- Photon is an underrated gem

 

Ever since the split started, people have been gushing about Bo and how he might be the best jungler to ever play League of Legends in Europe. However, during all of this, Vitality’s other import player has gone under the radar while absolutely dominating every single player he has come across on the rift. In the six games Vitality played this season, he came out on top in the laning phase for five of them, and its remarkable considering the fact this is his rookie season and he has already played against top players like Wunder, Odoamne and BrokenBlade.

A few analysts out there have been making an argument that he isn’t very good at joining his team for early skirmishes, but they are missing out on the point that he doesn’t need to do that. Vitality is a team centered around their mid jungle duo of Perkz and Bo, and Photon has to play the weak side. It simply means Vitality expects him to hold off on his own and not get behind against the opponent laner by a huge margin because they are not going to help him out unless absolutely necessary. It’s Photon’s job to stay in the top lane and make sure that if the opponent top laner goes away to join his team in skirmishes, then he takes turret plates and pushes the wave into the enemy turret and he has been doing this remarkably well.

The only off game Photon has had yet is when he was playing Ornn, in which he was unable to use his ultimate to it’s full effect but considering how he is a rookie who is going to get better with time, it’s no big deal. The duo of Boton is going to dominate LEC for years to come if Vitality can keep a hold of them and have the right pieces around them.

3- Crownie and Exakick are better than other ADCs right now

 

When the season was starting, everyone had their eyes on Rekkles, Carzzy and Hans Sama, to see who will come out on top as the best ADC this spit, however the fans have been left surprised after seeing how amazing Crownie and Exakcki have been performing and have stood above the favorites in the rankings of important statistics.

Crownie is currently the only ADC along Patrik of XL that has a kill participation of over 70%, but considering how poor XL has been and the lack of kills they have in their games, Patrik can’t be put in the same bracket as Crownie, meaning Crownie has been in a class of his own. The guy has been everywhere around the rift wherever his team needed him to be. The interesting thing is that he has been doing this while playing a champion like Jhin for half the games. Jhin isn’t in a very strong position right now but Crownie has been able to pilot him to his utmost strengths.

Exakick on the other hand, has taken a more carry oriented approach and has been playing champions like Zeri, Lucian and Sivir. The remarkable thing is that Zeri and Sivir aren’t champions that provide you a lot of strength in the early game, and the late game is where they shine. However, Exakick has won the lane every single time this split and is currently boasting an average of 18 more CS than his lane opponent at 15 minutes which is honestly insane when you think about it!

It’s amazing to see domestic talent of Europe perform at the highest level and this shows how strong regions like LFL, and LVP have become in recent years, and it won’t be long before we see more players follow the footsteps of Exakick and Crownie in making the big jump to LEC.

 

2- Astralis’ bot lane deserves better than this

 

Astralis were the only team that lost all three of their games during the first week, a surprise for a team that was considered to be in a better position than last year with the signing of Finn in the top lane and bright prospect, 113, for their jungle role.

The team’s performance was underwhelming across the board, and their bottom lane was the only bright spot. The bot lane duo of Kobbe and Jeonghoon was able to hold their own and perform well, but the rest of the team struggled. The top lane, mid lane and the jungler, all had poor performances, and it seems like the team is stuck in a rut despite barely edging out XL in a close game.

Despite having a decent early game, 113 has struggled to find any kind of usefulness after the 15-minute mark and it’s almost invisible of him disappearing during the later stages of the game. This has been a significant setback for the team and a contributing factor to their poor performance. Considering he was actually criticized for the same thing last year in LFL, it is difficult to see it changing anytime soon. There were more experienced options like Selfmade and Shlatan available in the market who could have come in and contributed immediately. It’s unlikely that Astralis’ trust in 113 would prove to be the right choice in the long term, but who doesn’t love a good redemption story?

Additionally, the mid laner, Dajor, had a particularly rough first week. A great example of how poor he was is that despite the strength of the champion Ryze in the current meta, Dajor’s performance was so underwhelming that fans were left shocked. He was unable to take advantage of the champion’s power and struggled throughout the game. This further compounded the team’s struggles, and it’s clear that Astralis will need to make adjustments and improve their performance if they want to have a chance to succeed in the LEC. They are almost certain to miss out on playoffs for another split but that could be the start of them changing things up for the upcoming split, otherwise they will risk losing Kobbe and Jeonghoon to a team that can actually play around them.

 

1- Rekkles has been unfairly targeted by fans

 

Rekkles has always been the face of LEC alongside Perkz and him returning to the big stage once again hyped up the fans to a whole new level. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, his return hasn’t been the best and Fnatic are currently struggling to find their rhythm in the league. It is unlikely that they will miss the playoffs but that’s a risk, and in case that happens, everyone will be out to blame Rekkles, but what exactly is happening to Fnatic? Is it actually Rekless somehow taking a toll on their performance? We don’t believe that’s the case.

Fnatic’s support Rhuckz and mid laner Humanoid have been severely underperforming. The Rhuckz we saw at Worlds in the absence of Hylissang showed a lot more promise than the player we have been seeing in LEC for the last couple of weeks, and it could be due to the fact this is his first season at the highest level and nerves might have come into play. Humanoid on the other hand has no excuse, considering he is an experienced player and one of the pivotal members of this team. Humanoid has been consistently making silly mistakes and overextending when he doesn’t need to. There have been many times when the enemy mid laner along their jungler have attacked the Fnatic’s bottom lane, but Humanoid always failed to join in time.

The decision making from these Fnatic players has been horrendous and it’s disappointing to see such talented players making these mistakes. The jungler Razork, has had a decent season but in the game against Heretics, he was constantly making mistakes in teamfights that allowed Heretics to win a game they should have lost.

There is a lot of work to be done by this Fnatic squad, but it doesn’t start with Rekkles.