Photo: LoL Esports
During the transfer window, you sometimes have to be lawless. This year, the market was even livelier than usual and the European teams went a little in all directions… If some had good surprises, others were on the contrary left behind. Among them are Jankos. The one who is surely the best jungler in the history of the LEC is stuck on the bench of G2 Esports and his sky seems to be blocked. To bounce back, he returned to his options on stream.
Option 1: Join an ERL team
According to the various rumors released by the pundits of the transfer window, Jankos is rather expensive. It may seem paradoxical, but he is almost more likely to join an ERL team than an LEC team, even though the latter have more substantial financial means. The reason ? The buyouts are variable geometry, a bit like in football. In short, the richer the buyer, the more profit the seller wants to make. It’s a bit the same on League of Legends and G2 could thus facilitate a transfer of the Pole to an ERL team… especially because such a team does not compete directly with the Samurai in the LEC.
Even if there are still places to be formalized in the European elite (Astralis, Team Heretics…), Jankos is not very optimistic about the recovery. Rather, he is targeting a team in LFL (Karmine Corp) or in LVP (Spanish league). The German league and the Polish league are also mentioned, but it would hurt our hearts a little to see a legend like the jungler fail there.
Option 2: stream for a year to hope to come back later
Jankos still has one year of contract with G2 Esports, for this reason, if he wants to play for another team, the latter must be ready to buy out the Pole’s contract… Not everyone can afford it and the player mostly suffers from competition from other junglers, who may be “free agent“and cost a lot less.
The veteran could therefore agree to remain on the bench, “like a good dog“, in order to stream for G2 by developing his image and that of the structure. After a year, he would then be completely free to commit, without additional cost, for another team. The concern is that in addition to missing a year of competition, it will above all be necessary to convince potential recruiters with his soloQ sessions as his only weapons…
Option 3: wait for an opportunity for the summer
The 3rd option is a little at the crossroads of the others and for the moment, it is the one favored by the Pole. The idea would be to remain on the bench for the first half of the season, to then join the Summer Split a team looking for a little boost to improve and qualify for Worlds. It looks a bit like the plan applied by Nisqy this year, who signed for MAD Lions after being sidelined by Fnatic. The advantage is that Jankos’ price will be significantly lower at that time, given that he will only have 6 months left on his contract. The disadvantage is that he has no guarantee and that he could a priori only join teams in difficulty… Rare are the structures to change a winning team.
Another factor to take into account: according to rumors, the LEC will change format for 2023. So there could be not one but two transfer windows. Which for Jankos is rather good news.
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Kameto spoke on stream to give some more context on the Rekkles case. As a reminder, Karmine Corp would have agreed to make a deal with this League of Legends legend to allow him to sign his return to the LEC. It’s good for his values, a little less for his finances.