Excel brings in Mikyx to LEC team replacing ‘deeply saddened’ support player Advienne, while Tim Reichert speaks to Esports News UK about the decision being made by him and the coaching staff, not consulting the players and Mikyx’s two-year contract

Update: Excel’s esports director Tim Reichert has spoken to Esports News UK clarifying who made the decision to bring Mikyx into the team, replacing Advienne – and the thinking behind not consulting other players beforehand.

On Advienne saying ‘management’ made this decision, Tim said: “It was the esports director and coaching staff. I flew out to Berlin on Sunday morning just to be there for a meeting with Henk (Advienne) in person and give him the reasons. Obviously I was very aware he was devastated and super sad, and wanted to give the team full context about the decision and everything they needed to know, and the chance to talk about it and ask questions.

“You can’t always do these things perfectly and a player has been devastated due to the decision making. It’s okay to be emotional and to rip into me, I don’t complain about that at all. Some details are not taken completely into consideration with that.”

On some of the criticism Excel has received today about this news, he added: “It’s not like it comes with surprise, there are people out there who will not like this decision. And it was not an easy decision to make at all – not just because of the history, not because we were afraid to make the decision, but in the end we have a very good player we’ve replaced, because we’ve had the unique opportunity to get someone who makes us – in our perspective – a better team. 

“Unfortunately people do not like this, but it’s sport at the end of the day and we want to compete at the very top. I need to do what’s best for our business. We have Mikyx on a two-year contract, having a player with his success on the team is a big addition. There are many reasons why this is exactly what we needed to do, at least from our perspective.

“Obviously Advienne is super disappointed and some people think this was the wrong call from us, and at the end it was my call to handle the situation as we did. It wasn’t just my call to sign this player though, because there’s all of our coaching staff, but when we realised it could happen and we could make it happen… and it’s not an easy deal, we had to find solutions with G2 and the player. 

“And the timing here, we had a weekend to play and we also need results. So when do you communicate that to the players? There’s the argument of: “Why did you not consult the players? Why did you not ask the players?”

“I can give you a very easy answer on that. These players are close to each other, actually closer than most of the other teams I had before. I do think – and my coaching staff do think – it’s actually a very creative vision that Mikyx is as of now the better player and can bring more to the team. Next to that, we do have a very good idea of his personality and we’re very confident this player will not create drama within this group of people. 

“What info did they hope for? That they would have to backstab their good friend to tell us “yes” and then we have to go for Mikyx?

“We’d assume they will be happy to get a player like him next to them, even if they could never say so. On the other hand, it would bring us to a really bad situation. It needs to be the organisation’s decision as to what kind of route we go down and what kind of team we want to have. So this decision was [made] more to protect the other players, to not be involved in a decision which we consider is one we need to go for. We wouldn’t have spent additional money on that if we didn’t have the confidence [to make this decision].”

Original article:

UK-based esports organisation Excel Esports has signed Slovenian League of Legends support player Mihael ‘Mikyx’ Mehle to its LEC team.

Mikyx is an experienced player who achieved solid success with G2 in recent years, having won MSI in 2019, reached the finals of Worlds 2019 and won several LEC/EU LCS seasons. Prior to that, he played with the likes of Misfits, Splyce and Fnatic.

Mikyx replaces Dutch support player Henk ‘Advienne’ Reijenga, who was promoted from Excel’s academy team to the LEC first team last summer, along with jungler Mark ‘Markoon’ van Woensel.

Advienne has spoken about his ‘deep sadness’ about being replaced so soon into the LEC 2022 Spring season, which we’ll come onto further into the article.

Tim Reichert, who joined Excel as esports director in October 2021, taking Excel co-founder Kieran Holmes-Darby’s role (who departed Excel the other week), said in the below video: “Mikyx is a champion with multiple trophies, and if you have the chance as an organisation to add him to your roster, you have to go for it.

“Our visions this year are not to hope for playoffs, no, we don’t hope for playoffs – we go playoffs and we go even further.

“Advienne is a great LEC player, but Mikyx is arguably one of the very best supports out there. He brings something we did not have yet – a winner mentality. But let’s not forget about Advienne, he was a very strong team player, he had a good synergy with [ADC player] Patrik and he was a great personality, so we had a team which came together well.

“So it was a really tough decision to make. So it’s sad and it hurts, but we’re in talks with Advienne and will be figuring out something together. We are in a very competitive industry, sports is always about the very, very best and Mikyx is more experienced and versatile. He brings what we need for the team.

“I hope you’ll join us watching and cheers for Mikyx and the team, smashing Mad Lions this weekend.”

As mentioned, Advienne is understandably upset about being removed from Excel so soon into the 2022 LEC Spring season, especially after he claims he was told the roster would be built around him and Markoon this year.

He is still contracted with Excel until November this year, but looks like he will be benched – there was no mention of him playing for academy team JD XL (named after Excel’s recent partnership with JD Sports) in the UK/Ireland/Nordics European Regional League, the NLC.

“As I’m writing this, I’m not sure how to feel,” Advienne said in the below Twitlonger. “On Sunday I’ve been told by the management of Excel that I was to be replaced by Mikyx, after just two weeks of play in the Spring Split, for the upcoming week of the LEC and the rest of the LEC onwards.

“This decision was taken by the management only, without any open dialogue with my (now ex) teammates or any heads up to me prior to the decision already being made. This decision, as I’m told, is NOT made based on performance issues, motivation issues, issues with regards to my personality or anything in/out of game related. It is purely a business decision.

“During the off-season, Excel made clear that the roster for 2022 was going to be rebuilt around Markoon and I. This gave me a lot of confidence and trust from the org because it felt like I finally ‘earned’ my spot in the LEC and that I had an opportunity to really show what I am capable of with my newfound confidence and the actual time to scrim before the LEC is already running.

“It deeply saddens me that I won’t have that opportunity this year to prove and develop myself during a full split in the LEC.”

Advienne went on to talk about his strong start last year, his reflections on his performances so far, experiencing imposter syndrome and more in the Twitlonger.

He also added: “I don’t have any negative feelings towards Mikyx and I wish him and the rest of the XL players the best of luck in this, and the upcoming splits. I believe that Patrik, Finn, Erlend and Mark deserve a world-class support at their side, sadly that will not be me as I have been given time nor opportunity to reach that level.

“I would like to end by saying that I will miss the XL boys a lot. I want to thank everyone that supported me or my teammates, I hope you will continue to do so in the future.”

Advienne is currently open to talking to other teams. He’s represented by AchieveMinds, the agency launched last year by Excel Esports’ former head of performance Fabian Broich.

Excel currently have two wins and three losses after the first two weeks of the European League of Legends LEC Spring 2022 season.

Excel head coach Youngbuck posted this tweet a few days ago, after their win versus SK Gaming:

Dom Sacco

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.