The LEC 2023 season is hotting up and today saw Excel Esports announce they’re coming for the top next.
Excel Esports from the UK has been making some pretty big moves lately, announcing their own bid for a Game Changers title as well as doing exceedingly well for themselves in the LEC 2022 season. But now they’re putting in their bid to make it to the very top of the LEC.
What’s the new roster?
December 12 saw Excel Esports announce their starting roster for the 2023 LEC season, with some big signings, some familiar faces, and a whole lot of potential. For an org that was notorious for not making it above seventh, the 2022 season was a breakthrough.
Making it to playoffs in both Spring and Summer splits, ending the meme of the org that had never made it. And with this previous newfound success, we can expect more from the British organization.
Announcing this roster with the slogan ‘not this time’ Excel Esports are making sure everyone knows, making playoffs alone is not enough. Now it’s time to climb to the top. This roster is strong and demonstrates that Excel won’t just take a breakthrough, they want the crown.
And with this roster, this could just be the year they do it.
Who is on the roster?
Excel Esports has notoriously built their rosters around the star ADC bot laner Patrik (Patrik Jírů) who has been with the team since 2019. 2023 is no different, as the only remaining member of the 2022 roster, we can expect 2023 to be the year Excel build off Patrik.
The 2023 XL Starting Roster –
- Top – Andrei ‘Odoamne’ Pascu
- Jungle – Andrei ‘Xerxe’ Dragomir
- Mid – Vincent ‘Vetheo’ Berrié
- Bot – Patrik ‘Patrik’ Jírů
- Support – Raphaël ‘Targamas’ Crabbé
Why is this roster so exciting and surprising?
For fans of Excel Esports, buying in big names has not been that recurrent of a theme. The team has been seen to bring in big names - such as Mikyx for the 2022 season. However, the org was founded on building up developing talent and creating a strong foundation.
But this often wasn’t the case for the team, who despite having an academy team to develop talent, often missed out at the last minute. Hence the meme about never making playoffs in the LEC – having been one of the longest orgs in the region competing.
So to see the team bring in big names such as Odo who won the LEC Summer 2022 and Vetheo who is a star mid laner from the now dissolved team Misfits Gaming, is a lot. It’s definitely something new from the team.
Additionally, bringing in Xerxe is also exciting for fans. The jungler was last seen with Astralis in Summer 2022 in the LEC but Spring 2022 was playing in the LCS for Immortals. His announcement on the starting roster promises some exciting results. Especially as he and Odo have played together before.
Finally, Targamas who was picked up for the LFL and was playing for G2 Esports in 2022, joining Excel brings in the strong support that Patrik requires in game. Having played on G2 Esports and shown great plays alongside Flakked, fans will be excited to see what Targamas is able to bring to XL.
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