Having put an end to its academy plans, the English structure said it wanted to focus on its teams in the higher leagues. In order to aim for the top of the LEC ranking, and perhaps a participation in Worlds 2023, Excel has offered the services of two veterans.
Reunion of a 2018 duo
These two players are Odoamne and Xerxe . The recruitment of the toplaner was announced yesterday, but Finn, still under contract with Excel until the end of 2023, has not yet announced that he is looking for new opportunities.
Markoon’s contract will end on November 21, 2022, the recruitment of Xerxe therefore makes more sense. This will allow him to play again with Odoamne, as during their time at Splyce in 2018. This season, Splyce finished third in the Spring Splitbefore collapsing in the Summer, in narrowly qualifying for the playoffs. They had made themselves go out in the first round after a hard-fought match (2-3) against Schalke 04 (who went to the final). During the Regional Qualifier, they had dismissed the Misfits, before losing against G2 Esports, in a new 3-2. Even if this team had not gone to the Worlds, it must be recognized that it nevertheless made a good season, despite its slump during the regular season Summer Split.
Excel seeks to shake up the market
Unlike the NA league, the LEC seems to want to put the small dishes in the big ones in 2023, with many teams who have announced that they have increased their budgets in order to increase the general level of the league. Excel is part of the lot, but is far from being the only structure in this case. It is difficult to say whether these are the European performances at the Worlds which made the leaders reactwho are afraid that the league becomes less attractiveor if they are the future arrivals of KOI and Team Heretics who reshuffled the cards.
For Excel, the stated objective is clear: to obtain a Worlds ticket. Odoamne and Xerxe have the qualities required to get there, but we have to wait to know the rest of the composition of the team, as well as the transfer window of their direct competitors to estimate Excel’s real chances. It also means that we will not see theJankos/Odoamne association, which had made the heyday of H2K in 2017.