penni

Entering in 2019, they were a middle of the pack team with some insane talent, like Inspired and Larssen, plus Woolite and Vander in the botlane. That roster didn't pan out the best, and after Hans sama joined in 2020, they had a middling spring followed by coming 1st in regular season summer, and making it to worlds, then they shit the bed and went 1-5 :p. Well 2021 went a hell of a lot better, adding Odoamne and new rookie Trymbi, coming 2nd in spring, and 3rd in summer playoffs, making worlds and being drawn into the Group of Death, and managing to make FPX blow the fuck up. 2022 replaced Hans sama with Comp, an oft maligned player resigned to C tier rosters like Vitality's 2019-2021 disaster rosters, and their MVP jungler Inspired with Malrang, a korean player who was known for his time on goddamn Jin Air (rip sadplane). They then proceeded to get 2nd in playoffs in Spring, and 1st in Summer. As you do. Being the only western team to make it out of groups, they immediately got drawn vs JDG, and lost pretty handily with some weird niche picks that absolutely did not pan out (Trymbi Nasus Support, in a bad matchup for it, anyone?) 2023 began with Odo being replaced in toplane with Szygenda, a player similarly maligned by vitality's disaster rosters and the rebranding to KOI, after a merger with Rogue's team, inheriting Rogue's entire infrastructure in the league. Now that's how you get into the league in a big way and establish yourself quickly. And as the previous champions, giving Odo and Larssen their first LEC titles, there were fairly big expectations put on this team. Sure, Szygenda was basically kinda a rookie at this point still, not having played a full year on Vitality before being benched then brought back in 2021, but his performances in the LFL were impressive nonetheless, often being called TheShygenda for his insane performances on Gwen and Gnar.

Winter began as it usually does, weirdly. KOI take a game off of BDS, with a double ADC botlane, off Excel with their tried and true Kalista/Soraka, and losing a game to a Fnatic who hadn't boomed completely yet with a very ill advised Jhin pick. But, a 2-1 start isn't exactly awful. However, KOI showed some of the problems that Rogue would show back in 2022 Spring, and 2021. Namely, the phenomenon known as Rogue Time. Where at around 16-20 minutes, the whole team mental booms and completely forgets how to play league of legends well, and the midgame completely collapses undoing the earlygame advantages they accrued usually. It got memed heavily by Korean fans, and slowly spread, but it was an actual thing that would happen. Rogue mid-game was absolute abysmal, only in 2022 Summer did they overcome it, and in Winter 2023, it came back in a big way.

Week 2 didn't go that well. A loss to a fumbling Heretics, and Ruby's 2nd good game for the year, a loss to MAD's double ADC comp, and a loss to SK with another, ill advised ADC pick. God, what was going on? Odo wasn't the biggest shotcaller, but they were a lot better than this in Summer? Well one thing was Trymbi didn't look the best, basically ever since he picked Nasus at Worlds and he went on a bit of a tirade on Twitter against the people saying it was a troll pick. Basically he stopped playing to his usual standard afterwards, sadly. These problems continued into week 3. They hadn't locked playoffs yet, and were sitting at the bottom of the table with an underwhelming Astralis, a slumping Fnatic, and a dead in the water Excel. A win over Vitality started their week, which I believe locked them at least a tiebreaker, a loss to G2, and a win over Astralis locked themselves into playoffs, with a poor bot showing in all 3 games. Yeah, KOI didn't look the best. Nothing they won was convincing, and their losses looked lifeless. I don't know, the whole project wasn't going the best so far. Groups wasn't gonna be easy, their first series was a surging SK, who were looking like dark horses for the entire split.

Well, against all odds, KOI actually got a 2-0 over SK, with a good Larssen performance and a renewed Malrang on Sejuani doing Malrang things. Next opponent, Vitality. Ah shit, this is the superteam who got 1st in Winter, KOI have been relying almost entirely on clutch Larssen performances. Well again, against most odds, Larssen pulled out another set of carry performances, with Comp making sure his Sivir his noticed again for its insane carry potential, beating vitality in a quick 2-0. KOI made playoffs! Without demonstrating as much Rogue Time! Let's goooo!

Rogue were always better in Bo1s, but now as KOI they appear to have reversed this? Wonder if their Bo5 performances are gonna be as strong. First up was a series VS the other team who went 2-0 in Groups, G2. A carry performance from Hans sama's Miss Fortune, and a surprise Bel'Veth from Yike took game 1 and 2 respectively. KOI got put on their last legs, and Game 3 came back to a Comp performance. Man got a pentakill! Demolishing G2 inside their base, they got a food back in the series, and it came down to Game 4, it's still doable. Rogue have been reverse swept before, and they can do it to their enemies just as easily. KOI should be able to as well.

Nope nope a disaster in the botlane let Hans sama carry the entirety of G2 vs a Varus/Kalista botlane from Comp and Trymbi, being utterly destroyed. But, but, unlike others so far, KOI got a 2-0 in Groups, so they get a second chance to qualify to finals, and then a potential rematch vs G2. All they need to do is beat their old rivals, the MAD Lions. The team that dominated 2021, and when they slumped in 2022, Rogue took over and won Summer. Their rivalry has been building since 2020, when they took the regular season over G2 and fought each other for the top spots to go to worlds.

And that series went ok! A dominant Larssen Tristana, and a signature Kalista from Comp won Game 1, but that quickly faded. Game 2 featured a fairly weak botlane and the Nisqy Gragas that teams refused to ban, Game 3 had the New Hyli Special, Rell, and Game 4 had the Nisqy Gragas. That's the season. Y'know what, considering they made 3rd overall this season, that's not the worst but it's a step down. They did replace their weakside king Odoamne, so maybe the team needs more time to gel. Their botlane also looked shockingly weak after it was fair to call Comp/Trymbi a top 5 at best botlane at Worlds last year, which was tragic. Trymbi really hadn't been playing well, and Comp looked a lot less confident in lane and in teamfights, probably because his support wasn't doing as well at all.

But, nonetheless, not winning the split is a disappointment. Going into Spring, they were in a good position. Top 3 means that they have a good chance to make MSI if G2 win another split in dominant fashion, as long as they outplace MAD Lions. No changes going into Spring, but Week 1 wasn't exactly a glowing highlight. A loss to Astralis, who were looking pretty good. Day 2, a win over Heretics after some insane fumbles from Ruby, but it's an awful look for KOI, that they could only win through a phonemally awful throw and a botched baron call, and the fact that the game was that close vs a heretics that looked like well... Garbage they looked like shit.

Day 3, a rematch from Winter, MAD vs KOI, a snoozer with few kills and a generally unimpressive game from both sides. Well, Week 1 ending on 1 win. That's really bad. You made playoffs last split guys... Sadly, Week 2's looking a lot harder. G2, the Winter Champions, SK who blew past all expectations and Fnatic, who despite dropping out in the regular season, came back with a new top laner, new support, and went 0-3 first week...

Defying the odds, winning against G2 thanks to a strong Szygenda, a win over SK thanks to Comp and Larssen, and then a... loss to Fnatic... To be fair, Razork took a facilitator in Vi and made it look like a hypercarry, punishing the botlane of KOI super super hard, playing really really not well, failing to execute a pick comp and failing their teamfights really badly despite having goddamn Taric.

Week 3, KOI have basically locked Groups. MAD, Fnatic, Excel and Heretics all being 2-4, while KOI sit on 3-3 means they're safer going forward, almost guaranteed a tiebreaker at the very worst. And hey, they're facing Excel, who just subbed in a new midlaner in Abbedagge (god this news made me kinda mad, but i digress), plus BDS, who practically ran the regular season and Vitality who definitely looked weaker compared to Winter, but were still no slouch, especially with a strongside bot laner like Upset.

Well a win over Excel who showed most of the same problems, especially with closing out games, then 2 losses meant that KOI barely scraped into Groups. 7th place. Not great. You only beat the half starved MAD Lions and Heretics thanks to that one extra win. 4-5 isn't something to be happy about at all, and considering Rogue were often considered Bo1 Merchants, never showing up as strongly in their Bo5s, this is a really bad look. Groups is looking grim, especially considering they're facing G2 next.

And that series saw an incredibly rare Pantheon pick twice in toplane, piloted by BrokenBlade, which kinda stomped the lane vs Szygenda, plus another hypercarry performance from Yike in Game 1 left KOI on the back foot. A disastrous Leona performance from Trymbi as well felt phenomally bad. But, KOI didn't discourage. Next game, they came in and nabbed a Jayce for Szygenda, after some of his insanely good Jayce play in regular season, and a rare Malrang Lee Sin that actually worked out, but a quiet game from botlane, despite a Zeri/Lulu lane. Game 3 was desperation. Mikyx picked a Jarvan Support, and played it like garrrrrbage as Comp proved exactly why they never can give him Sivir, carrying the game incredibly hard, with a weak Szygenda Kennen and a shock Larssen Akali showing KOI at some of their individual peaks again.

A win over the Winter Champions puts you in a damn good position, after a rough as hell regular season. But still, Malrang felt coinflippy after so many junglers figured out his insanity, Trymbi looked incredibly weak despite being alongside Comp who was capable of solocarrying, and Larssen was either passive and willing to scale until late, or fully willing to put the game on his back and carry everything through to a win, with no in between. Facing BDS next, who uhhh... Managed to completely figure out and lock down the meta.

And KOI as serial meta players... Yeah prayers weren't gonna do anything they got booty blasted in a 2-0. Adam counter picking Kennen with an Aery Jarvan, Sheo putting on an absolute clinic on Vi, and in Game 2, Crownie dominating the laning phase and Nuc getting an insane game on Cassio left KOI reeling going into their next series, this time for their groups lives, another series vs G2.

Now it's fair to say that for most of the season, G2 had been experimenting on new odd picks, since they had a stamped ticket to MSI already, but they obviously had some ambitions still. But, now that they had their entire season at risk, G2 stopped fucking around. Game 1 saw a unique Cho'Gath pick into Kennen, which almost worked until Larssen scaling paid off and he took over the game on Viktor. Game 2 saw a pair of insane ridiculous drafts. The Bel'Veth/Sejuani Jungle/Mid respectively, which demonstrated some insanely high potential, vs an AP Varus Mid from Larssen, which ended up horribly. MVP Performances from Yike, Caps and BrokenBlade vs a really bad game for Comp/Trymbi, again, led into a game point game 3. Larssen Ahri, Comp Sivir, and Trymbi Lulu. This is as close as you'll get to the max comfort draft for KOI, and they shitted it. Hans sama completely ran over Trymbi and transferred that lead everywhere across the map, going deathless and basically solo carrying the game, leading to a KOI loss. Out at 6th, before playoffs. A major disappointment, and everyone on the team felt it. Something had to change.

Summer came along, and a few rumours flew around. One of the biggest rumours was Rekkles roleswapping to support for the future, which meant no Fnatic botlaner, since they weren't gonna keep him on as a support. So a trade was proposed. Fnatic buy Trymbi, a talent grown on Rogue, winning a title with them, and a weakspot all year for KOI, in exchange, KOI get Advienne, excitable, mature Advienne who, to be frank, hadn't gotten the best chances in LEC. A small stint on Excel before being replaced by Mikyx, followed by a benched season and a re-run in the ERLs, then joining Fnatic after a fairly weak season from Rhuckz. Advienne came into a bit of a bad situation, having to follow someone who was world class like Trymbi, even if 2023 was fairly weak so far.

And so, Summer began, with a sole change of the support, Advienne instead of Trymbi. Was this gonna fix the team? Fuck no, you can say a lot of things about Trymbi, bad and good but he's a loud player who calls a lot of shots, something that KOI definitely needed more of. Advienne wasn't that guy, at all.

And wouldn't you believe it, the same shit happened again. 1-2 Week 1, 1-2 Week 2, 2-1 Week 3 barely scraping into Groups. What's the point. But i'm getting ahead of myself. A win over Excel, who most expected to still go absolute dead last in LEC for the 3rd time, so not much to write home about. A loss to BDS who came 2nd in Playoffs and a fairly bad Aphelios game from Comp, followed by a loss to MAD Lions which was honestly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Rogue Time kicked in harder than ever and everyone comitted completely to protecting the president, meaning Carzzy went completely untouched, 1-2 week.

Goddamn it guys. Week 2, a loss to an incredibly strong Fnatic following a disaster game from Comp, a win over Heretics with a very strong Larssen Tristana, and a loss to SK capped off the week, another 1-2 week and a really really bad look heading towards groups. Week 3 started vs Vitality, a free win with a good Statikk Shiv Leblanc from Larssen, a loss to Yike's Kha'Zix for game 2 of the week and the game that would basically decide their groups chances: vs Astralis, who had been floundering in the lead up. And then Comp showed up again, after being basically absent the whole season. Hand delivering Sivir boomerangs to the entirety of Astralis, carrying KOI through to groups, looking phenomally weak and like easy prey. As written yesterday, Astralis then had to hope that SK lose to Fnatic, to keep groups, and their chances for worlds alive, but that all went out the window, after SK pulled a miracle out of nowhere and beat Fnatic.

KOI is the first team i'm writing about that actually is in Group stage, meaning I can do some meaty speculation about them heading into groups, rather than end it with a limp "hope they stick together" again. Truly, KOI look dead. After a strong Winter, an underwhelming Spring and a dead in the water summer they rightly should've lost for some of their abysmal performances and the hard return of Rogue Time, it's unlikely anyone will bet on KOI heading into the group stage. Considering their first opponent is a pissed off G2 looking stronger than ever and looking to secure their place in Season Finals even harder than before, KOI should definitely count themselves lucky that their vacations might start sooner than later. They're also one of the teams fortunate enough to have good championship points, meaning they might eak into Season Finals regardless, if Heretics and Fnatic completely bomb out, which is unlikely at this point.

Whatever does happen, I'll be there watching. Larssen has become one of my favourite players in the past couple years, and of all the "next generation" mid laners, he, humanoid and Vetheo are the ones i've got the most faith in, by far. Comp as well deserves a good roster, just a shame it might only come next year.

Anyways, be back tomorrow for the next team...

After 2019's "superteam" lost in spring finals to the G2 actual Superteam, 2020's "superteam" (also featuring Upset, natch) performed basically ok then went 10th in summer, and rebranded to Astralis heading into 2021. Signing an all new roster going into 2021, they floundered around the bottom of the table, going 9th, tied 7th, then 9th and 10th in 2022. But the rosters always had flashes of brilliance with endearing players like Zanzarah, WhiteKnight who had arguably a top 3 lee sin in the world during that cursed Lane Sin period, and Kobbe who was a reliable rock looking for a team to finally step out of the shadow of his prior glories on Misfits and Splyce and his 2020 on TSM which was a disaaaaster. Well going into 2023, Astralis actually kept a surprisingly consistent core of Dajor in Mid, Kobbe in Bot, and Korean support Jeonghoon, previously known as Execute, who made a strong impression early in 2022 on Pyke and Bard, despite being on bottom CL rosters beforehand. In addition, they retained the same coaching staff, which while not the top tier of LEC coaches, you could do a WHOLE lot worse. The new additions were Finn in top lane, who had a... odd history prior to this. Debuting in 2019 Summer as a sub for Rogue, who had a fairly weak roster at that point, before making Worlds with a similar roster in 2020, and utterly flopping as the EU 3rd seed, moving to NA and joining CLG during their worst years ever, then coming back to EU and joining Excel during their most successful year, and missing out on worlds by getting reverse swept by a Fnatic who had a fair amount of promise. And in the Jungle, 113. I think most people would say he's probably one of the worse jungle prospects in the ERLs, and he certainly didn't impress while on KCorp, often dragging his team down. But, with a good coach and team around him, he could maybe impress. Early on, not many hopes were had for Astralis, who were often placed bottom 2 or 3 alongside SK in tier lists and power rankings, due to the slightly underwhelming pickups of 113 and Finn, Dajor's mostly amateurish gameplay and Kobbe and Jeonghoon probably being elo helled again due to this topside.

But against all odds, Astralis managed to not completely shit the bed in Winter! Overall they went 3-6 in winter, which did qualify them for Groups, barely. Losses to a new G2 and Yike on a carry jungler, vs Heretics with a brave ass Fiora pick, Vitality who actually did well in Winter overall, and BDS left them very unoptimistic going into week 3, but grabbing a win over Excel meant they were at least guaranteed a chance for top 8, with an incredibly dominant Lucian/Nami, and on Week 3, a clutch Gangplank from Finn snatched victory from the jaws of defeat dropping absolute gorgeous barrels that completely annihilated an MVP level Exakick on Lucian, and then the game that would decide if Astralis could make it to groups, vs a slumped Fnatic that would end up missing playoffs for the first time in their history. Astralis, against almost all odds made it to groups. You could argue it was off the back of Excel looking completely lifeless and horrendous, and Fnatic having a ridiculously poor season in a meta that hated them, but nonetheless, Astralis overcame them and a rising SK to make it to groups. Let's Goooo!!!! And in groups they shit it goddamn it. A 2-1 loss to MAD Lions, who ended up being Astralis' bane this season, with a genuinely unique and surprisingly strong Cassio/Twitch botlane (it lost anyways), and a monster performance from Dajor and the Botlane in Game 2, followed by getting a win over BDS who hadn't come into their winning ways just yet, anchored by a Kled from Finn, his previous one-trick, and a really damn good Varus from Kobbe, carrying them through to one last try at Playoffs. Who's their opponent MAD fucking lions goddamn it all.

A quick 2-0 from MAD, focusing a Dajor who floundered all series, and a fairly disastrous performance from 113, despite Kobbe's best effort on Lucian left Astralis in a maybe not respectable, but certainly surprising 5th place. They scrapped and fought their way up and punched up for most of their victories, demonstrating a style that maybe wasn't unlike some Asian teams, with a toplaner transitioned around the map to generate pressure, a roaming mid-jungle and a strongside botlane who made sure they were the stars. But most of all, they showed 0 fear on engaging and taking every little fight they could, to generate any kind of advantage. That made Astralis genuinely exciting to watch, but there was an obvious weak link on the roster, and that was Mid lane. Going into Spring, Dajor was out, and the rumoured Mid was none other than LIDER, a player who was often considered a dark horse for most inflexible player ever. The narrative was always that the man would and could only ever play assassins, an unusual thing in high level play, as most midlaners since 2016ish stuck to control mages, with occasional assasin picks or poke mages as niche counterpicks. But honestly? That was never true. LIDER did play mages as and when needed, the man just preferred assassins in the game, and he was still capable of your Ryzes, (with the meta changes) your Annies, your Aurelion Sols, even an Azir from time to time. Yes, assassins were his specialty, and mostly what he played, but the narrative that his assassins were his only successful picks? Just untrue. Spring began with a rough first week. FOR ASTRALIS' OPPONENTS, THAT IS. Taking games over KOI, who made playoffs last season, and the Champions G2, with a LIDER Irelia, and dropping a game to SK, with a... unique botlane of Veigar/Pyke that did NOT pay off. Week 2 went rougher, losing to MAD (i told you) and BDS, who came in with a clear gameplan and a perfect plan on how to execute every comp, and then taking a game off of Vitality thanks to a strong LIDER Asol, and a fairly bad game from Bo on the inverse. Week 3 began with a new look again, as LIDER got his Zed, and used it to utterly dominate midlane and carry Astralis through, basically securing playoffs for the team. A win over Excel, thanks to a LIDER Irelia, and a win over Fnatic with another LIDER Zed, a JeongHoon Blitzcrank secured Astralis their first 3-0 week, and a shot at the top couple spots of the season, placing 2nd overall. A damn good finish, if i've ever seen one. LIDER brought so much to the team, and they looked incredibly strong going into the next round. Some things hadn't changed, like 113's ability to be exploited, but overall this roster look shockingly strong, and their playstyle had been solidified, and bright eyes looked forward to groups. We begin the group stage against the one and only Fnatic, a genuinely shockingly close series for what should've been 2nd place vs 8th place, but an odd choice with Illaoi from Finn lost game 2, alongside a misguided Zed pick from LIDER, and a game 3 that hinged on the success of another LIDER Irelia, which managed to finally pull out the win after a half hour slugfest. Astralis, to be frank, were bleeding. They didn't look anywhere as scrappy or exciting as in the regular season, and their next series vs Vitality, to qualify for playoffs, well... Remember yesterday when I said this series was the one that showed the Bo That Was Promised, an insane mechanical hypercarry player who could demolish a team and turn them into a chinese tiktok montage? Yeah, Astralis was on the recieving end of that. 113 and LIDER got absolutely FARMED by a wukong, followed by a Lee Sin, and that was a deathblow for Astralis' mental it felt like. They had beat Vitality already once, like, what was this? Their next series, since they had already won the one vs Fnatic, was vs... MAD FUCKING LIONS. I told you they were their kryptonite this season.

And despite a Cassio and Talon (?) from LIDER, 113 got hard exposed and dominated by the mid jungle of MAD, ending their season, once again, early. This was a sad moment. Astralis had finally begun to reach the heights of the roster that was promised to them, but other teams started reaching their heights much faster than they did, and simply outclassed them. Over the break for MSI, Astralis was one of few roster to make no changes. They had a winning formula, the 2nd place in spring proved that, and the formula and strategy was locked down, scrap everywhere, fight everything, get lane dominant picks and move Finn around to every sidelane to make sure you couldn't do anything without worrying about where he was.

Well... Summer came. And this is where their story goes from hopeful rise of a plucky young adventurer, to a tragedy that ends with the adventurer getting beheaded by the mighty warlord at the end. Summer didn't go well. At all. Week 1 began with a game vs Fnatic, the team that they beat in Spring Groups, however now sporting a fashionable new Botlane of Noah and Trymbi, who proceeded to utterly shitstomp them. A game vs Heretics with a shiny new Vetheo and Flakked, who proceeded to utterly dismantle a LIDER Neeko, but ending the week on a positive note with one of the absolute worst earlygames i've ever had the pleasure of watching in pro league of legends, vs BDS. Nuc simply walks into LIDER for about 10 seconds letting him fully stack Lethal Tempo and nearly 1v2 Adam and Nuc. Please watch it, it's so absolutely pathetic and tragic for how the rest of the game now goes. Finn also helps by RPing Peak Shanji (the OMG toplaner known for his AP tops like Rumble) in the toplane vs Adam, and you know what. It's not the worst. It was a fun fucking game, but the fact that Astralis only won because BDS managed to completely annihilate their ENTIRE early game by doing that wasn't a good sign. Week 2 came by, Astralis were sitting tied with 5 other teams at 1-2, so not that well off, but they could be much worse. Right now they could be Excel still sitting at 0-3! First game, vs MAD lions oh for fuck sake why did they give Nisqy Gragas. That's like rule number 1 vs MAD since winter playoffs, don't give Nisqy Gragas. Well that's lost. Game 2, Vitality well this should be better, vitality look lost and helpless in almost every game now! And Astralis do it! Another Yasuo, with a Gragas for Finn in top handily sweeps the floundering Vitality, and Game 3 of the week pits them vs G2 aaaand yeah it goes about as well as you might think. The game's an absolute snoozer with 10 kills in almost 30 minutes, but demonstrates something amazing about G2 and something really bad about Astralis. Unless they're running the pace of the game, Astralis generally flounder. And G2 are professionals at running the game at the exact pace they desire. Week 3 comes by, and Astralis are a bit worse off. Now they're only tied with 3 other teams, and they could still make it to groups, but few people have high hopes for them. Some of the people they're tied against, they face this week, and BDS they've already beaten. This should be easy, right? Well they beat SK, thanks almost exclusively to a LIDER Azir, giving them one step up on the competition for 8th, now all they need is:

Beat KOI

SK Lose another game

Well, next game vs an Excel who got their first 3-0 week and look decently strong, they lose. No biggie. Would've been nice to win, but all they need now is SK lose (they didn't, they beat MAD) and to beat KOI. That KOI game was an absolute shitshow. Comp pulls out an off-meta Sivir and reminds the world why Sivir was the menace it was just after the rework, with a disasterclass from JeongHoon on Nautilus. Well, their season isn't over just yet! If SK lose to Fnatic, the First place team with a dominant insane botlane, an MVP jungler and one of the strongest toplaners right now, then Astralis qualify! Well they get a tiebreaker. But they've beaten SK before, it's doable again! That SK-Fnatic game was a nailbiter start to finish. From a surprisingly Humanoid Xerath, one of the most terrifying 4/4 Jaxes i've ever seen, and a ridiculous carry performance from Mr Sertussy, it was an end to Astralis' season. 9th place. Where most predicted they'd end in Winter and Spring. Afterwards, it's announced that due to Championship points, it's impossible to Astralis to qualify for Season finals, meaning for Finn, 113, LIDER, Kobbe and JeongHoon, that's it. Their season is completely over. Unlike Vitality who finished last, they're done for now. Following this was some truly heartbreaking posts, especially from Finn, which I'll show here in its entirety:

Now, this topside was fairly exciting. Perkz was historically known mostly as a carry player on mechanical assassins, like Leblanc, but in his recent years, he was yet to show any real promise in game. Out of game, he's a renowned leader and able to get along with anyone. Bo was a prodigy jungler, undefeated in 2021 until the matchfixing allegations came out and arguably doomed the FPX roster, while Photon was a bit of an unknown quanitity. As a CL player, Thanatos was MUCH MUCH better, and others like DnDn are in LCK now and doing well for themselves, but Photon was on T1 Challengers, which has produced some of the best new talent in the LCK and LCS, with Berserker going to NA, Trigger doing well in LFL, and others like Mireu doing well on R7 in the LLA. So you can't exactly discount his potential. Now the botlane? They went from Carzzy and Labrov the year before, with Carzzy looking bottom 3 at best and Labrov being a coinflip on his performances, to a power duo of Neon and Kaiser. Now, as a certified Misfits Fan until their departure, I am always hyped to see former bunnies doing well. Kaiser? Less so. I don't enjoy his play and I think he's either been massively overrated in his time in LEC or performing to a basic average level of what an LEC support should be. So I wasn't exactly excited after Kaiser spent 2021 clinging to Carzzy's legs dragging him back to elo hell, and 2022 ensuring UNFORG1VEN couldn't have too good a time. But, you know, it can always get better. And honestly, who better to bring this roster together than the former Misfits coaching staff? A very strong, proven coaching staff that managed to take a team of middle of the pack players and almost propel them to worlds on unique and interesting strategies, and VTO. Well, Winter began and Bo ended up kinda performing to the level expected. Photon did pretty damn well, and Perkz didn't look bad either. And despite a lot of what people now say, Neon actually didn't do too badly on uncomfortable picks, while kaiser utterly SPRINTED some laning phases and oft abandoned the botlane to push their topside ahead. Not the worst, but on picks like Caitlyn? Yeah not advisable. Neon also showed that he still had it in him with some amazing lategame carry performances on Varus and Zeri, but both of those were so broken at the start of this year that it's maybe easy to discount his performances. The topside certainly had a time. Photon was performing pretty damn well most of the time, usually on Gnar, Gwen or an AP Gragas or two. He ended up being recognised as the best or at least one of the best junglers in the league. Bo was mostly resigned to Maokai, Vi and a very early Graves carry game, and usually went down in kills but, overall, not the worst. Perkz? Yeah not too bad either. An overall mixed bag that had some good azir games, some int tristana games, and a questionable leblanc and taliyah at the end. But the overall cohesion of the team was sometimes called into question. Which, considering this was essentially one of the first LPL players to be brought into the LEC, and an unproven LCK player who had to learn english as well, AND deal with (what I presume was the reason for the vitality collapses before) a general manager who does something. I don't know, but to foreshadow, it's absolutely something to do with management that this team ends up THIS bad, and that most people who move on from Vitality end up so much better off.

Vitality ended the regular season with a 7-2 record, placing them in first place, with losses to a surprisingly strong underdog in SK Gaming, with Irrelevant stomping an Ornn Photon in the toplane and successfully transferring that lead throughout the map, and to KOI, the former Rogue, with a dominant Azir from Larssen, and a double ADC botlane stomping the Zeri-Yuumi of Vitality. But, this was ok, since they tied first alongside MAD Lions, holding the head to head, so taking the lead and their first ever 1st place regular season in LEC. Congrats Vitality! Now just carry that through to the all-new Group Stage! ...This is where this overview is gonna take a bit of a depressing turn. Winter Group Stage is where a lot of Vitality's problems begin. They begin by picking Heretics to go up against. And that's completely understandable. Heretics had the disaster lanes of Evi and Ruby, a fairly weak botlane of Jackspectra and Mersa (sadly) and I'd argue The Western GOAT, Jankos, having a hell of a season with 3 training weights. Unfortunatly, Vitality drop a game to Heretics. Now, not the end of the world, but this game hard exposed some things. Target and overwhelm the botlane, Neon and Kaiser can collapse, and Bo will usually try to salvage bot rather than focus topside. Photon can be beat by forcing him onto tanks, and don't give Bo something he can carry on. An embarassing Cait/Lux lane in game 2, a kindred carry in game 3 from Bo, plus a weak series from Photon showed that the "god" can bleed. But ultimately, Vitality did win. Dropping a game does mean nothing, at the end of the day. You don't lose points or anything for that. And then the KOI series happened. KOI vs Vitality's Bo3 was a disasterclass. A clean 2-0 from Malrang's Xin Zhao, an utter failure of a Nidalee/Yone comp, and speaking of Comp, why did people give him Zeri? He's the pentakill guy now he gets pentakills, cmon. KOI cap off the series by annihilating Vitality, and qualifying for the playoffs. Not the end of the world. Vitality have one more chance, vs... SK GAMING The guys who beat them in regular season, the surging rookies looking promising and incredibly exciting going towards the playoffs. They lost a series too right? To... Koi... Well. Shit. Vitality proceed to play a 40 minute game with maybe one of the most useless scalers ever, Elise, and Perkz' Shitty Goddamn Sylas, and then get stomped in under 25 minutes by The Sertussy on Ahri, and picking Karthus with no protection or scaling in jungle, vs Draven Vi. Oh God. So that's Winter dead and gone now. Placing 5th overall, after winning the regular season, ain't exactly great. Fingers started being pointed, and at the end of the season, the team went forward with heads held high. So you dropped to 2 surging teams with high ceilings? What could go wrong next season?

Well... How about dropping your perfectly fine botlaner? Here's a twitter link for an announcement video that Neon is being benched for Upset! ...What??? A lot of people quickly jumped on board saying that Upset is a better botlaner than Neon, and should be a better fit for vitality's playstyle. He's goddamn Upset, right? The best botlaner EU's ever produced that never won his title? That's what people say. They also like to neglect that fuckin EGO that Upset has. Maybe it's unpopular to say, but some of his comments about being the best to not win a title, or claiming He's too Good to Not Win A Title come off as very egotistic to say the least. But other than that, Vitality remained the same going into Spring. G2 won the split, MAD came 2nd overall, and Vitality have a bright future ahead of them! How can they NOT win the regular seaso- 6-3 they went 6-3. Which is still impressive! But the losses were to goddamn ASStralis (who also went 6-3 and looked a whole lot better without dajor but That's for tomorrow), G2 who just came off from winning a split, and BDS, who were really coming into their form in this meta. Not the worst, but some performances were… sketchy to say the least. Bo didn't look as good, Perkz was faltering in some matchups, Kaiser had some real fuckin int plays at times, and Upset did sometimes play for pure KDA. Photon still looked pretty damn good, playing carries more, and a game or two of malphite who just looked useless at times, but whatever. His Gwen looked good, he had a scary Jayce, a couple of Camilles and a Darius, for a bit of variety! There's not as much to say other than the whole team... well... they looked tired. There was less laughing, less jokes, people seemed frustrated, and overall the atmosphere seemed slightly worse. Speaking as someone completely outside of that sphere, that's what I saw. Which could be completely wrong, but eh. Some things you do have to infer. Their losses often looked much worse than in winter, as well. Bo usually got the bad end of the stick in their losses, looking completely exposed as a fairly bad jungler, which wasn't always fair. Sometimes it was just a passive less explosive botlane which led to slower or longer games which no-one in vitality really wanted to kick start. Even in some wins, Perkz or Photon got hard exposed, while Kaiser kinda shit the bed or messed up engages in lane, leading to Upset usually just playing under turrets and begging for help from Bo. But you can whinge all you want, they still came out with a positive record, and a 4th place position, meaning they get to avoid the top 3 of Astralis, BDS and G2. And they made the best use of it! Groups started out with a very clean 2-0 over MAD Lions, owing to some stellar Zeri Gaming from Upset, then Ahri from Perkz dominating MAD's scaling comps that shit the bed colossaly from Carzzy and Hyli playing Lucian/Nami very poorly all game both times. Not much else to say, but they managed to repeat the effort vs a defeated and downtrodded Astralis, where 113 put on a disasterclass of being punished in jungle. That one series showed the Bo We Were Promised, and uhhh.... it never came back. Seriously. That was the last good performance by vitality, for basically the rest of the year (spoiler). They qualify to playoffs and something flicks in their heads, and they look hollow, like absolute shells of humanity.

First series vs BDS has a kill-less game for Vitality, one of the worst Annie performances for a long time, and an absolute schlacking in the jungle for Bo, on a 1/9 sejuani. There's nothing else to say than it was an absolute wipe, and Vitality get dropped to the lower bracket vs a loser's bracket MAD Lions who infamously were 1 nexus strike away from being dropped to 9th and missing groups, let alone playoffs. And Vitality get a win off the back of a good tristana performance from Perkz, and get roundly whipped into shape by Nisqy and Elyoya, who look world class again if only briefly. An absolute disaster in the botlane for games 1, 3 and 4, Chasy proving that he was the better korean top all along, alongside some really damn good carzzy performancse led to Vitality absolutely losing everything. And that's spring split done. Vitality completely figured out, losing to the top 2 teams one after another, and missing out on MSI. But the team not only made it to playoffs convincingly, but put on some good performances before then! Surely nothing will go wrong going forward? Right? Summer. If any Vitality fans do truly exist, they will shun this season with hatred and fear. And going in, it didn't look much different to Spring, if anything people were more hopeful. Upset was apparently signed hastily after playoffs, meaning a general lack of time to sync up as a team and get on the same page, as well as less scrim time. Well this time, there's a whole ass international tournament in between, hosted near Berlin and a large number of huge players are gonna be in the EU, on soloq and ready to scrim. Week 1 starts in an... unfortunate manner. A quick loss to a humbled and utterly whipped MAD Lions after the infamous 1647 incident, with Bo getting utterly demolished and, of note, a very very distinct lack of harmony. Bo would often start objectives and go entirely MIA during the objective, basically just leashing for the enemy while leaving his lanes in a horrid state, and going for objectives basically against the wishes of the laners. Kaiser looked lost, Upset lost almost every lane, Perkz often got pushed in and left to fend solo vs ganks, and Photon got way too over eager and similarly lost lane, and threw games off of it. Week 1 finishes with a middling win over a slumped SK with some truly disastrous jungle and support performances, and another loss to an up and coming Heretics with Vetheo. Week 2 was worse. A 0-3 week, losing to G2 with another jungle disasterclass, losing to Astralis who outscrapped Vitality to death, and Fnatic who utterly shitstomped Bo with a pocket Amumu. You might notice a recurring pattern of Bo being the most focused and often lost person on this roster. Management thought so too, so they brought up their 17 year old LFL jungler Daglas, who was just ok. A carry focused player who often took risky fights against most conventional wisdom. AKA A mini Bo. Oh God. Week 3 started Daglas' LEC journey, in an absolute snoozer vs Koi where Photon was the only human logged on and Daglas got put on Maokai duty, where they lost, and then on Day 2, they needed the win. Desperately. Without this win, they're eliminated from groups, and it's vs a slumping BDS. This game was fought with blood, sweat, tears, and teeth. A constant back and forth between 2 teams fighting for last chances in the season, and it all comes down to one teamfight. I implore you, if you haven't to watch the final few minutes of this game. It is utterly heartbreakingly close. And BDS just sweep one fight and walk in a wave to end the game. That's it. That's Vitality's season, basically. One more game vs Excel looks just as lifeless as ever, and they're gone. Vitality's out, the superteam has failed again. Well, they can qualify for season finals on a technicality but it's so slim that I doubt they will. Not that I, or any other viewer would want to. They look utterly hopeless and depressed, and I cannot wait to see how badly this ends.