SK Gaming JNX on LEC: “It’s my time to shine.”

Entering his seventh consecutive LEC split, SK Gaming’s Janik “JNX” Bartels has a message for his fans, as well as for his opponents: “This summer, I want to show that I’m a very underrated top lane player and that I can easily match other top-tier top laners.”  

SK Gaming started their LEC Summer split run with a victory against Team BDS, however, the following days of play resulted in two losses for the German team — one against MAD lions and one against Fnatic. However, with seven weeks of the LEC action remaining, there’s still enough time for SK to show what’s in them. 

Following SK Gaming’s first win on the LEC Summer 2022 opening day, Fragster sat down with JNX, formerly also known as Jenax, to talk about his goals and expectations for this split. 

 

The LEC veteran JNX

Fragster: Congratulations on the first win of the LEC Summer Split, how are you feeling? 

JNX: I’m feeling pretty good, but not really because of the game. Obviously, I’m happy that we won, but it feels really nice to have a crowd in the studio again and play in front of them again. 

You’ve been around in the LEC for a long time, this is the start of your seventh LEC split. How does it feel, entering that veteran status and being back for another split? 

We can also say it’s been 3 years, yeah. It feels like I’m not really stuck because I feel like my own performance is always improving. I feel like now, this split, it’s my time to shine because I usually always play better summer splits than in spring. And I feel like now I’ve got no more excuses. I can’t say that I’m nervous or that I’m new in the top lane. I’m not playing top lane for that long, but I’m not new anymore and I’ve got no more excuses to play bad so I’m gonna give it my all this split. Moreover, I feel like the veteran status also suits me due to the improvement I made both in and out of the game as a player.

Underrated roster

And how do you feel about the team, obviously you didn’t change anything in the lineup entering the summer, so how do you feel about the SK roster as a whole entering this split? 

I think that our roster is really underrated and I see a lot of teams take us that we are like a bottom team, but at the end of the last split we actually won against all top four or five teams and we lost to the lower-tier teams. 

There are these struggles we had as a team — I’m not sure if we still have them, because we haven’t proven it wrong yet — in our persistency and probably in our mental, where if we play against an opponent who we think we are or should be better than them, we play a lot worse than if we play against an opponent where it’s even, or they’re better, so we know we have to perform well. 

This is something we’ve worked on a lot during the offseason. We actually had an offseason bootcamp against academy teams. We put in the extra work and also the other teams changing makes it that we should have a really strong showing in the start and I think we can carry that through and be a surprise this split. 

You just mentioned that you feel that the SK roster is underrated, and, as you said, many outlasts and pundits are getting nowhere near playoffs. Do you feel that sort of disrespect/ that sort of rating is going to motivate you in any way to prove people wrong? 

I think that rating would make us scary in a sense. If other teams play against us and they feel like we are bad and they have to win, then they will not win against us at all. I think they will have no chance if they don’t respect us because we will be strong in this summer split. I don’t mind the rating at this point, because we will prove them wrong. 

Summer 2022 ambitions

What do you hope to achieve in this split? Are you looking to just make playoffs or are you going to say “No, we’re going to show everyone, we’re going to Worlds”? What’s your goal for Summer 2022? 

My goal for this split is not to be in the top 4 or top 6 or whatever. Last summer split, towards the end, individually I felt like I was top 2 of the top laners. But then during this spring split, my performance crumbled a bit. So this summer, I really want to show that I’m a very underrated player on top lane and that I can easily match other top-tier top laners.  

So my goal is that I will be seen as one of the best, if not the best top laner in the league. And if I need to make playoffs for that, I will do it. And if I have to make it to Worlds, I will do that as well. 

Love the energy. Final question, coming off the first LEC Summer 2022 win, do you have a message for the fans in Germany? What would you like to say to them? 

My message is that in our team, the majority of players are German and we represent Germany to make our country proud. I hope you support us, you will keep supporting us, or that you start supporting us now, because now it’s the best time, as people say, to jump on the hype train.

Header: Janik “JNX” Bartels