LEC Spring 2021 Has Begun and G2 Looks Amazing

Finally, after months of waiting, we can finally watch LEC matches again. The new season brings many changes and I’m going to discuss some of them below.

LEC Spring 2021 Details

LEC Spring 2021 is scheduled to take place between January 22^nd – March 14^th. The league offers 200,000 euros in prizes and features 10 participants. Among them you will find a lot of old names but also some new ones. LoL fans who also enjoy watching CS:GO will likely recognize Astralis among the latter.

Here’s the complete list of participants:

Fnatic
G2 Esports
Astralis
Excel Esports
FC Schalke 04 Esports
MAD Lions
Misfits Gaming
Rogue
SK Gaming
Team Vitality

Big Roster Moves

Many roster moves took place pre-season. Some small, some big. Among the significant ones I would mention FORG1VEN, who left FC Schalke 04 Esports, Nisqy and Upset, who joined Fnatic, Treatz, who moved from TSM to SK Gaming, Perkz, who left G2 Esports, and perhaps the most important of all, Rekkles, who left Fnatic and joined G2 Esports.

Rekkles was synonymous with Fnatic. Him leaving the club is the equivalent of Lionel Messi leaving FC Barcelona. Well, maybe I’m exaggerating, cause he’s not exactly the best League of Legends player in the world. But he’s definitely a famous competitor who spent more than 6 years at his former club and he’s just 24. In effect, he built his career there and came close to winning Worlds with them in 2018.

Rekkles’ departure from Fnatic has left the club in disarray and we can see that in the early results. Fnatic played its first LEC Spring 2021 match against Misfits and lost.

Early Results

There has been just one competitive week so far and all of the matches took place on the same day. The results were the following:

G2 Esports – MAD Lions: 1 – 0
Astralis – SK Gaming: 0 – 1
Rogue – Excel Esports: 1 – 0
Vitality – S04: 0 – 1
Misfits – Fnatic: 1 – 0

These results clearly suggest that G2 Esports and Rogue are still in great shape and can be expected to perform well in the long run. Other teams, including Fnatic, are uncertain and we will need at least 3 – 4 weeks to learn what their capabilities are. In Fnatic’s case, there’s a big risk to be fooled by the name. Remember this: if a famous football club like Real Madrid sells most of its players and starts bringing in competitors of much lower skill, the club’s name won’t compensate for that.

Favorites for the Season

In my opinion, LEC Spring 2021 has two big favorites: G2 Esports and Rogue.

G2 Esports

This team placed 2^nd at Worlds 2019, 3^rd – 4^th at Worlds 2020, and 1^st at the last 4 seasons of LEC. That’s very impressive. Apart from Rekkles, the entire roster has been playing together for more than 2 years. And while it is true that Perkz, who left G2 to join Cloud9 was instrumental to G2’s success, I’m confident that Rekkles can successfully replace and perhaps even surpass him.

Rogue

Rogue had an unusually good season in 2020, finishing 5^th at LEC Spring 2020, 3^rd at LEC Summer 2020, and 13^th – 16^th at Worlds. They did lose, however, two players at the end of the season: Vander and Finn. But they replaced them with Trymbi and Odoamne. I’m not sure how good Trymbi is, but Odoamne can certainly play. It remains to be seen if the team can continue to play in this format the same type of LoL they showed us last year.

So far, Rogue had one match at LEC Spring 2021, which they won.

Photo credit: Riot Games