Image credit: Riot Games LoL Esports Flickr/Michal Konkol
Update (March 27th 2022): Excel ended up crashing out of the playoffs in the first round, however it was a close match versus Vitality. Excel narrowly lost 3-2, after being 2-1 up.
Original article: UK-based esports organisation Excel Esports finally broke their curse to progress to the League of Legends LEC playoffs for the first time in their history today.
They beat SK Gaming to secure a top six place in the League of Legends European Championship, joining the likes of Rogue (who became the first team to reach the LEC Spring 2022 playoffs), Fnatic, Misfits and G2.
Excel Esports can finally breathe a sigh of relief, it’s taken them seven seasons but they have finally reached the playoffs today.
They came very close to reaching the playoffs spot on numerous occasions in the past, including that time when Schalke completed a miracle run.
The news comes after former Excel Esports pro player, and current LEC caster/streamer, Caedrel, re-joined Excel as a content creator.
Excel ADC player Patrik – who received player of the game – told interviewer Laure Valée on the broadcast after winning: “I’m really excited and happy that we made it. I’m glad we managed to beat SK and showed how good we can be.
“It means a lot because I’ve always been with Excel and they didn’t make it before… I’m just really happy I can give back to the fans a little bit, after all the support they’ve given me through the years.”
Patrik, Excel Esports
“I’m really excited to play best-of-fives [in playoffs], I think I’m really good. Right now a lot of ADCs look good on Jinx but not so good on everything else. In playoffs when the meta gets a bit more diverse, I aim to get the best AD Carry there.
“I would like to face Misfits [in the playoffs], they’re looking quite good, so it’d be an exciting best-of-five to play.
“I thought last split we were a really good team, but we didn’t make playoffs, so that was pretty bad. So joining for a third year, I was excited to play again. With the players we have, I knew this team would be the best option for me.”
The final sixth-place LEC playoffs spot is still to be decided at the time of writing, though it’s looking like it will be Vitality, who formed a LoL ‘super team’ a few months ago, but haven’t been as high up the table as they would’ve liked so far.
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.
