Of the two UK-based esports organisations playing in the League of Legends LEC, one made it through to the Spring 2021 playoffs and the other did not.
Fnatic finished fifth after their defeat to Rogue this evening, while Excel missed out on playoffs by finishing in eighth place.
It was heartbreak for Excel again, especially after they picked up back-to-back surprise wins over G2 and Rogue in the past two days. Ahead of today’s matches, it was all to play for as a handful of teams had the chance to reach the top six playoff spots.
But Excel fell to Schalke, who managed to get into the playoffs spots once again. It must have been particularly bitter for Excel, after they narrowly missed out on an LEC playoffs spot last summer as Schalke pulled off an insane miracle run. It seems Schalke have become some sort of bogey team for them.
Fnatic, while making the playoffs, will likely be disappointed at finishing fifth and entering the playoffs in the lower bracket following three defeats in a row during this LEC super weekend.
However, Fnatic founder Sam Mathews did say that some ‘private stuff behind the scenes’ had impacted the team this weekend.
They will join SK in the lower bracket, while G2, Rogue, Mad Lions and Schalke enter the playoffs upper bracket.
The final standings are as follows:
It was certainly a close final weekend in the LEC, but questions will be asked of Excel.
While they picked up some impressive wins against bigger teams this season, they also lost to every team at least once, and with the individual talent they have, some would expect them to be finishing higher.
It’s been a couple of years since Excel first entered the LEC – it’ll be interesting to see which changes they’ll make ahead of the Summer 2021 Season.
The LEC Spring 2021 playoffs get underway from March 26th.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
