Reports: Excel and Cloud9 set to revamp their LoL roster

Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu is reportedly joining Excel, while Cloud9 is set to acquire Dimitri “Diplex” Ponomarev and Jang “EMENES” Min-soo for the 2023 season.

As the 2022 season is about to come to an end with the culmination of the League of Legends World Championship, teams in the LEC and LCS have already started to reshuffle their lineups in preparation for the off-season. The most recent teams to supposedly make roster changes are Cloud9 and Excel, and reports indicate that these adjustments have the potential to change the teams’ dynamics significantly.

Dimitri “Diplex” Ponomarev and Jang “EMENES” Min-soo reached a verbal agreement with Cloud9

According to a report from blix.gg, Cloud9 verbally agreed to terms with Diplex and EMENES for the upcoming 2023 season. Diplex, a member of the Vitality.Bee will reportedly take over as the team’s new starting midlaner for the upcoming LCS season, while EMENES will play for Cloud9’s Academy team. While competing under the Team Vitality banner for the past two years, the 17-year-old was the starting midlaner for its Academy lineup, though his time there wasn’t entirely fruitful.

Meanwhile, the Korean mid-laner, EMENES, has served as a member of many popular teams across the globe, including Kingzone DragonX, Legacy Esports, Galakticos, Excel Esports’ Academy team, and most notably Gen.G’s Academy team. Furthermore, the signings of Diplex is expected to eliminate C9’s current mid-laner, Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen, the veteran star who rejoined the team during the Summer Split in 2022. Even though Jensen and C9 put on a fantastic performance and won the LCS championship during the most recent Summer Split, they fell apart at the 2022 World Championship. Along with every other North American representative, Cloud9 were eliminated from the Group Stage of the event with a disastrous 1-5 record.

Romanian LoL star Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu set to join Excel Esports

Alejandro Gomis of Blix.gg reported that veteran League of Legends player Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu has verbally agreed to sign with Excel Esports to replace Finn “Finn” Wiestål in the starting LEC roster. Odoamne has played for the European powerhouse Rogue for the past two seasons, helping the team win its first LEC title this summer and advance through the group stage of the League of Legends World Championship.

As Odoamne reportedly set to take the position of Finn, history appears to be repeating itself. In 2021, Finn was left without a team after Rogue added the Romanian player to take over the top laner role in the team’s starting roster. However, Odoamne was supposedly looking for a new club after speculations that Mathias “Szygenda” Jensen would be joining the KOI/Rogue lineup for the 2023 season surfaced online. Nevertheless, Odoamne’s deal with Excel is only verbal and open to change because Excel won’t be allowed to sign him until his contract with Rogue expires on November 21.

Header: Lance Skundrich/Riot Games