Update (March 21st 2023): Excel Esports have today benched their mid-laner Vetheo and replaced him with Abbedagge.
Vetheo said in a tweet: “I’ve been really far from social medias in the past two months, so I want to express a bit how I feel.
“I’ve been depressed since the Winter Split and I don’t know how to get better if not winning. I think it is time to take a bit of care of myself.”
Excel added in the following statement they ‘understand this has been a challenging time for Vetheo and we want to express our empathy and support for him’, and explained their reasoning about moving Abbedagge into the starting roster:
Original article (March 8th 2023):
UK-based esports organisation Excel have brought in a new head coach and support player to their League of Legends LEC team.
LIMIT has joined the Excel LEC team as the new support player, who was most recently with Team BDS, while Hidon has been brought on as head coach from Ruddy Esports in the NLC.
The Excel LEC team changes were made after Excel finished bottom of the LEC Winter 2023 regular season.
This means existing support player Targamas has been benched, while Excel Esports CEO Tim Reichert confirmed that Hidon is replacing previous head coach Youngbuck following a ‘disappointing’ split. Reports also suggest assistant coach Nelson has left.
“We felt not just because of the results, but also because of the environment here, that we needed to do a change,” Tim said.
“When it comes to coaching staff, I think it’s fair to say we had three and a half very, very good years with Joey. But in sports, when do you not reach your goals, changes are needed.”
Excel Esports CEO Tim continued: “I have to say I’m very, very happy to announce Hidon as our new head coach. He impressed every one of us, all players and management. He is one of the youngest LEC head coaches ever, but he impressed us the most.”
Hidon is aged 22 years old.
“So we feel we’ve found something extraordinary here with him, and that he’ll bring something to the team we didn’t have before,” Tim added.
“We lacked communication within the team, so we needed someone more vocal. We were happy with what we saw in the trials with LIMIT, and I think he’s as excited as we are.”
‘I’m very happy with Hidon and LIMIT. Hidon impressed every one of us, and we lacked communication within the team, so needed someone more vocal [like LIMIT].’
Tim Reichert, Excel Esports
Hidon added in this tweet on joining the Excel LEC team: “I am happy to start my journey with such talented players. Its on me to set the team environment and create the structure necessary to achieve greatness and I feel ready for the challenge.”
On Excel’s goals for the next LEC season, Tim said: “I think it’s a realistic and not delusional ambition to say we want to become minimum top six, better top four for the Spring LEC season, and the goal remains to go to Worlds.”
The Excel LEC team for 2023 was first announced in late December 2022.
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.
