(Photo by Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games)
UK-based organisation Excel Esports’ hopes of reaching League of Legends Worlds for the first time fell away this weekend at the LEC Season Finals.
Excel were defeated 3-2 in a close series against fellow London-headquartered organisation Fnatic on Sunday. It’s painful for them, given they were 2-1 up before Fnatic took the next two games to win the series.
German org SK Gaming were also knocked out at the League of Legends European LEC Season Finals after losing 3-0 to BDS on Saturday.
Excel Esports said on their X (aka Twitter) socials page that being ‘devastated is an understatement’ and that this was ‘without a doubt our greatest comeback’.
For context, Excel finished bottom of the LEC regular season in both Winter 2023 and Spring 2023, then went from extremely disappointing to extremely impressive, reaching third in the LEC Summer 2023 regular season to reach the Season Finals.
Excel’s Korean jungler Peach, who joined back in May, said: “Although the ending is disappointing, this year feels like a really positive experience. Doing what I love with good people is truly a great experience. Thank you to everyone who supported us.”
Support player LIMIT added: “This was the closest I’ve ever been to Worlds and I failed in the end, I think my level was not on point but I don’t have many regrets with how I approached practice. I want to thank all my teammates, staff who helped me grow as a player and a person – and all our fans for their continued support.”
Top-laner Odoamne also commented on the LEC Season Finals loss: “What a damn disaster. What a sad way to end the season. Grateful we managed to turn it around after the first two splits but nonetheless this feels really bad. Sad I didn’t show up to the level I expected. Thanks everyone for the support, will see what the future has in store.”
Mid-laner Abbedagge said: “I’m sorry. If I did a bit better I feel we could have had the series. We had a bad week of scrims and Fnatic were the better team today. Congrats to them and hopefully they can represent EU well at Worlds.”
Fnatic target Worlds 2023 qualification after victory over Excel at LEC Season Finals
Fnatic’s win over Excel moves them to face BDS next. The winner of that match will head to Worlds 2023, while the loser will play against NA LCS team Golden Guardians for another chance to qualify.
Fnatic support player Trymbi was voted MVP of the LEC Season Finals match versus Excel.
Fnatic also confirmed that Wunder will be stepping in for Oscarinin, who is unable to play due to a hand injury.
Fellow European LEC organisations Mad Lions and G2 Esports have already qualified for Worlds 2023 following their LEC split wins earlier in the year.
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.
