UK League of Legends caster Sam ‘Initialise’ Hapgood has been called up to the LEC broadcast for the first time.
He will make his debut on the LEC desk as a play-by-caster this weekend, and will be casting alongside his brother Alex ‘Nymaera’ Hapgood.
Both Hapgood brothers have built up a ton of experience in UK and Nordics League of Legends over the years, with both appearing on the 2022 broadcast talent line-up for the European Regional League for Northern Europe, the NLC.
Nymaera also joined the 2022 LEC caster line-up earlier this year.
Initialise will also join fellow UK casters Machine and Jamada on the LEC broadcast this weekend, both of whom have already appeared on the LEC in the past:
Initialise said on Twitter: “This is a dream come true in so many ways – gonna do my best to knock it out of the park!
“It is utterly wild to see my name next to the likes of Jamada, who has blown me away with his insane growth this year, and then Machine who’s been giving Midas a run for his money when it comes to turning a show into gold. Rarified company, to say the least!”
When asked what his role will be this weekend, Initialise added in a comment to Esports News UK:
“I’ll be a PBP caster on the LEC this weekend, casting with Alex! It’s an incredible dream come true – made a hell of a lot sweeter to do it alongside Alex. We started casting together, now we get to do LEC together. It’s wild!”
Initialise
Nymaera added: “Never one, without the other – it was only a matter of time. Welcome to the LEC Initialise! The brothers reunite on an even bigger stage. It’s also a UKEL reunion for ourselves and Jamada, actually speedrunning grassroots to major broadcasts here.”
The UKEL was an amateur circuit that was shut down after Riot enlisted Freaks 4U to operate the NLC.
This is a guest role for Initialise, and it’s not clear whether he will be back on the LEC again this season or not just yet, but if past indications are anything to go by, League casters from the UK LoL scene and NLC have made increasingly regular appearances on the LEC over the past year or so.
In other LEC news for this weekend’s broadcast, Team Vitality and Team BDS will play their matches remotely, with some players testing positive for Covid-19.
The two UK-headquartered teams in the LEC, Fnatic and Excel, will also face one another this week, after both had back-to-back defeats last weekend.
Excel’s COO Tim Reichert told Esports News UK in a news post about JD XL player Emenes being benched: “We will get back this weekend, I’m quite sure about that. There will always be setbacks in the season, but we will be back in shape this weekend.”
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.
