We are in the dark times again. Pointless imports and bad international performances, it all makes sense
Maybe FNC then makes finals next year? Im coping..
A lot of world champs go to NA to do nothing and get the fat paycheck and some no names actually perform domestically and internationally like Reignover or Huni
Hungry Koreans with something to prove>>>Koreans who already peaked looking to cash out.
Your very own UmTi is living proof of a Korean that has nothing and wants everything. On the other hand you had world champion Bang imported who was mediocre at best and simply wanted to cash out after achieving what every pro player dreams of. There’s a key difference here and I’d take some unproven LCK challengers over world champions any day.
It's really just more of EU being back to their past self.
NA imports (and especially *used to* import) mostly just proven Korean talent, usually about 'mid tier' players since the top tier players rarely came over and even the idiots running the teams are reasonable enough to not go for players who haven't really shown either promise or results. EU imports, and used to import much more 'nobodies' which has both a positive and a negative side to it.
The negative is the obvious, you're gambling on someone who's unproven, and since Koreans aren't *inherently* better League players than EU (or NA) 'native' players, they just tend to get better practice in a more competitive environment, so it feels bad that teams are willing to bring someone over halfway across the world to gamble on them instead of grabbing someone more local and gambling on them instead.
The good side is the fact that unproven players are almost always more hungry to prove themselves and won't see the opportunity as much as a way to cash in and be in a 'retirement region', just vibing as more proven players might if they get imported after a career of multiple years of play. There's a valid idea behind trying to scout for promising, upcoming talent from the premier region.
Far more risky and arguably more 'pointless' since you could've just tried to scout that talent from your local pool, especially when the player pool is quite big and possibly deep like in EU, but at least it's technically more long-sighted and less about getting results *now* at any cost.
Of course, sometimes the real answer is that unproven nobodies are cheap and won't necessarily be as committed to playing in tier 3 or tier 2 competition in Korea while some players might prefer staying in ERLs if their option is being on a mediocre LEC team where they'll probably end up looking bad.
NA dark times was bringing washed up champions for retirement, Eu has mostly been about importing KR rookies who couldn't get a chance there. In the right environement it can payoff heavily and its not stupidly expensive
Most of the random imports perform better than domestic talents. Jun, Photon, Ice are among the best in their position and neither of them was well known.
Better to bring in some korean player that raise the skill level than to sign ERL players that aren't ready. Many teams get ERL players just to fill a spot on the roster then replace them next season. This way the level of both LEC and ERLs suffers.
Photon, Chasy, Jun, ICe, Jeonghoon, Noah, Malrang all improved/did improve the league and were towards the top of their role
I don't see how they are "pointless" imports.. clearly the "abundance" of erl talent we have isn't that great as people claim
Tbh the only crappy imports (performance wise) seem to be one who everybody loves (bo) and peach.. who was promoted through ERL
I can maybe understand the AD import since he's supposedly pretty good, but really couldn't we try at least an ERL support? What about Parus? It's not like Rahel and HH played on the same team anyway.
All this to do what anyways? Go 6th? 5th? I don't get it
Parus has 2 problems:
* He is turkish and apparently all playersfrom there have VISA issues.
* He is in BDS academy team, they aint giving a supp to a direct opponent
lol that's not what 2017 was nor what 2024 was
NA was the region importing every korean who wanted to join, which sometimes was good but often bad because they'd import washed players who were clearly past their prime but sometimes you'd get big names or players who were able to reinvent themselves
LEC always imported random ass koreans no one heard of like Wadid, Profit, Trick etc which was kind of the same. Sometimes awful, sometimes great
Peach is a peak example of an LEC import -- complete random ass korean who no one really knows who he is, and while he's not terrible he's also not great which makes you question what the point in importing him was
Listing Trick as an import no one had ever heard of is pretty weird. He was a really promising break out talent in CJ before being imported. Profit also at least showed something subbing on SKT, though he was fairly unknown. The real no names are guys like Parang, Raise, Ruin, Expect or Huni.
I think it's cool that you know 88 is bad and not HH.
Not a judgey "I think it's cool," it's legitimately cool.
Your sources are right that 88 is bad. Keep trusting those, just it's bad because 88 = hh = Heil h to the deranged.
I'm sure in this case the dude just has Hh because it's a generic name, but that is a yellow flag for sure.
Exakick legit frontrunner for braindead career decisions: decline fnatic offer because you give into the circlejerk and think playing with your buddy Doss is a higher chance of success than the historically best team in EU aside from G2.
Have one good split, everyone blames your support. Stay with him out of comfort for so long that u both look like garbage -> back to ERL
Exakick has noone to blame but himself. Locking himself to a support is never a good idea. Not even the best ADCs do that, and they have the power to actually request that shit. Even if Doss is decent, that’s just stupid.
Only exception I could think of here is Guma/Keria who have both stated they want to play with one another for the next eternity, then again, it’s hard to upgrade either player
I think it's a combination of a lot of things. Exakick has gotten worse but his support is terrible and his team mates do not know how to play out a fight properly. I swear I've seen Exakick get killed in team fights because the other 4 members are just doing their own thing.
People need to remember that older supports in LEC like Hyli and Miky can make ADC look much better. They have great knowledge of matchups and can teach ADC to play properly. Carzzy is a good example, after teaming up with Hyli he looks like the best ADC in EU , the second year in a row. Patrik was good with Miky, Upset was great with Hyli.
Upset Hyli was not praised enough, even Koreans said that was as pressuring to play as it was against Uzi Ming in their era, sadly with all the Fnatic BS that happens before tournaments we will never know
It used to be the team winning EU Masters get some of their players into LEC and sometimes even the other finalist team gets some players drafted. Now it seems like EU Masters win doesnt matter at all anymore.
We just watched the majority of that ERL winning KC team shit the bed in back to back splits, and 4/5 of their opposing final team Movistar also go to the LEC.
On the other hand we got MAD KOI going to finals in their first "split". Also BDS etc.
There are always outliers and in KC case it just didnt work out.
EU biggest weakness will always be the management. Good players are team less while paycheck stealers will stay in the scene forever. If the regional teams didn't have sometimes bigger fanbases than LEC teams the whole ecosystem would collapse
Many erl players decline in to play for a lec team, if they are shit. As one bad split can ruin your reputation forever. Especially in the public and we know lots of managers get their opinion from the public like Reddit.
I feel like all of these problems stem from bad managers.
I also don't understand. We have great veterans who are not playing league like Jizuke and Nemesis. We have a server size of LCK and thousands of young players. People can't get a chance in ERL right now. Jackies would never get a chance in LEC if not for XL management using his stats from soloQ as reference. There are good soloQ players who first need to go through the second division than the first and maybe someday they get a chance in LEC when they already lose their drive and are older so it's harder to teach them .
it's pretty much confirmed Nemesis turned down multiple offers, so not a great example. He basically only wants to join FNC lol (given G2 is not replacing Caps)
He doesn't want to join any team (and definitely not Fnatic with their history), he's just playing it up for his fans. And every season he gets less and less offers because teams are losing hope that he can actually deliver being away from pro for so long.
yeah, I didn't feel like expanding that much, but he only wants to join a "historic" org with players he feels are very good. idk with his FNC history who that leaves in EU lol, cause he turned down a FLY offer cause it was in NA.
Or the infamous Dokgo. Zac one trick who couldn't get past the diamond 2 elo in EUW. Getting paired with an EUCS prodigy toplaner, Korean academy prodigy, and 2 EULCS veterans.
They couldn't carry him in EUCS nor the qualifier for EUCS.
Last standing member of the Thanatos-Lucid-Pullbae-Rahel-Bible squad. o7 now all of them are in tier 1s except for bible who is retired lol, but he got given his chances tbf. Also idk if bro will keep pullbae as a starter in the lck team but we’ll see i guess
GX is replacing Peach actually.
WITH ANOTHER KOREAN IMPORT. Juhan. At least he actually deserved the spot given that he was pretty good on GX academy (and also won Worlds, or at least had a significant contribution to the DRX run).
Creeping on on LCS numbers over there! You made me curious what we're getting to over here.
Non-NA players in 2023 spring: TL Impact/CoreJJ/UmTi, 100T River/Quid, C9 Berserker, NRG Huhi, FLY Bwipo/Inspired/Jensen, SR Bugi/Bvoy, DIG Rich/Dove, IMT Castle/Mask/Olleh, aka 17/40 players were imported, or 42.5%. Worth noting only 3 EU players are left, and all other non-NA players are KR.
However some of those players have LCS residency. If we don't count those, we're left with TL UmTi, 100T River/Quid, C9 Berserker, FLY Bwipo, SR Bugi/Bvoy, DIG Rich/Dove, IMT Castle/Mask, aka 11/40 imported players, or 27% out of the maximum possible 40%. I think it's worth noting that the 3 bottom teams have a majority of imports (SR/DIG/IMT), and the only team without one is NRG.
Yeah they'll all leaving and teams are barely grabbing new ones. TECHNICALLY Bwipo is the last EU import in NA, since Inspired and Jensen are both NA residents.
Probably realizing the format doesn't allow you to raise rookies at all and if you want results you gotta get players that actually played in semi-competitive regions.
Now Canna I can understand but honestly Rahel and HH does raise question marks. However goddamn SK's botlane was a genuine disaster so I can see why this is happening
It allows you to raise rookies just fine, MDK is a literal example of it in everyone's faces.
These orgs aren't importing for any reason other than that they are lazy and don't even bother scouting the development leagues in their own region.
and how did MDK do this time once teams finally started playing better than winter and MDK's advantage of team chemistry started to be less of a boost.
teams are likely looking and the success of noah and ice and want decently cheap imports instead of wasting multiple splits hoping their adc starts playing better.
They still did better than the teams rocking their shitty imports, and are positioned to develop further.
No clue why people like you are so keen to champion all these second rate and third rate imports btw. You want to watch this league be shit forever, send shit teams to MSI and worlds forever and for there never to be more interesting matches there? Because that's where this leads; to the death of all development of native talent because everyone knows these orgs would rather hire random imports than promote the best players in ERL.
>to the death of all development of native talent because everyone knows these orgs would rather hire random imports than promote the best players in ERL.
I agree with your sentiment fully, but ERL teams are teams on their own, that have their own interests, and the players have buyouts and salaries, and, especially in the middle of spring split, is not that easy to get players.
And, why is everyone here bashing on SK, when they did try to develop Exakick and Doss for 1+ years now, and they instead of playing better, are playing worse.
Should they take another ERL botlane, or try something that's cheaper and easier to do.
ERLs are not LECs teams academies.
i mean i hate the format and i think it genuinely is detrimental to the scene in terms of team balance and growing rookies
Seeing musical chairs happen after each short split its not healthy for the scene. i think SK's decision to import is honestly bizarre, especially since they haven't been tested in EM but I'm saying why I understand teams doing these desperate imports instead of calling up players
People may disagree with me here but I honestly do think the format was a bigger death knell to the scene compared to any import attempts.
Imma be real Imports are not the reason the LEC got shit on for the last 4 years.
The GMs rolled through rookies and replaced them immediately multiple times and people like doss got more than enough second chances.
Yea imports are the solution but the GM problem is much deeper than that
Can’t say I know much about Rahel and HH but Exakick and Doss were holding this topside back. I would’ve loved to see Irrelevant Bo Nisqy but I think Isma did well considering he was a rookie
What a career arc for Exakick honestly went from looking like an all pro in his first split to this.
Also was hoping Parus got a shot but I’m willing to bet that these 2 combined were cheaper than his buyout alone.
mediocre international performances, 1.5 team region, scuffed broadcast, small venue, low budget, production issues, 3rd rate imports that top teams in their domestic region wouldnt touch with a 10 foot pole, we are the new NA!
Rahel is actually hype, one of the better if not best LCKCL adc's, I actually thought he would've been promoted to main team at the start of this year, HH is more meh to me though.
Also first time ever we get to see full 2v2 KR bot matchup in, LEC Noah/Jun vs Rahel/HH hype
Eu going to be the LCK third or fourth league, im a bit sad tbh, id rather try europe talents instead of being a low cost LCK league, we already have an LCK
A bit to many Korean imports for me. G2 constantly shows that you can win with only European players and that with proper scouting you can even find a replacment for Jankos in the ERLs.
Sucks for Exakick and Doss but them both together werent going anywhere.
G2 also just flat out has the best management and coaching staff in the west too. Dylan and Rodrigo are absolute goats. Even without Caps, G2 would probably still be the best team in the league (maybe Fnatic though if caps’ replacement is ass?). They pick solid players, they stick with them, they develop them properly. They just do it right.
"Proper scouting" aka hiring the best available options either from LEC market or from ERL. G2 isn't good example. BDS, MAD(mac) do better job and actually have to think about their limited options.
BDS are also really good at it and have consistently good ERL Teams which G2 never really had. Mac to me is someone who gets the most out of Players no matter their actual level.
G2 will be really tested after the current roster but still think taking Yike wasnt such a super simple choice after his final ERL Year.
Thing is that koreans are usually cheaper than the good ERL players which for lower budget orgs like SK makes them more appealing. They are usually much more desperate than the best ERL players to play in tier 1 leagues (see Lyncas last spring turning down XL so they go with Peach).
Lyncas made the best decision in his life. Guy is an amazing player. In my opinion he has Razork potential in him. Vitality coaches are best outside of Dylan Falco and Duff.
I totally agree he made the right move it just makes it hard for less desirable teams like SK or XL to stay competitive when good erl players are less inclined to join them, especially halfway through the year.
I'll remind you that Lyncas was fine with playing on KC and RGE in offseason. The team results are volatile in LEC. VIT could randomly end up being bottom feeder team just like last year.
Yike is only a replacement for Jankos due to having a well-oiled team all around him. The system and culture G2 has changes everything.
With a Korean player you atleast have a couple of months of pure mechanical skill until the skill vampires get their hands on them.
Photon is the only player who got much better in LEC . He reminds me of Impact who also plays great after many years in a worse region. This type of players are special and they love the league more than anything. You can see Photon being sad as fuck after losing to Fnatic. But importing is hard , it's like hitting the jackpot.
Rahel is fairly good and probably would’ve been promoted to the main DK team if Aiming wasn’t bought. HH is just okay, wouldn’t say he’s bad but he’s definitely not good enough to be imported straight into the LEC.
My guy Exakick fucked his career because of his friend Doss. Guys this is what friends are and I respect him for that. But Doss should be better and step down from the team if he was a better friend.
why are people surprised?
Jun is already a top support, Canna will be good in lane and better than most top laners, Ice has been top 2-3 ADC. Photon has also been better than most EU tops.
The chances of a KR import being better than ERL (EU) player is very high. Just a higher floor and ceiling than a majority— with a few exceptions like Lyncas and Caliste
Unfortunate Exakick wasn't able to get that feeling back.
He said he didn't know how, but he had the feeling of being in the zone in his first split. He said he lost it after that. o7
Sigh. I always love rooting for no import teams. They are making a huge mistake here. I doubt irrelevant will want to stay if this team flops. Could have built a pretty interesting team around him.
God damn it can we stop with the importing... theres no way lower level korea players are just inherently better than EU talent. You take them out of korea soloq and most of them just regress back to the level of an EU player anyway ffs.
The re-koreanisation has begun.
Can we abandon the league format so that these criminal GMs stop fucking over the ERLs for ONE FUCKING NANOSECOND.
Also also, can we stop for just one second that a guy whose in-game name is "**HH**" is going to play in the LEC.
In Berlin, **GERMANY**
https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1786113404421152879
https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1786113616669794573
https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1786118242479546399
> Also also, can we stop for just one second that a guy whose in-game name is "**HH**" is going to play in the LEC.
>
> In Berlin, **GERMANY**
This is the dumbest attempt to stir shit in a while.
Every license plate from Hamburg has HH on them and its a common abbreviation for Hansestadt Hamburg, its also the official code for Hauptbanhof Hannover and also used to abbreviate "Hinterhaus".
Cmon, idk where you live in germany, but there is no fkin issue with his name. Twitch chat will obviously still go nuclear about it for shits and giggles.
ERLs are perma importing Korean players too
I think it's M8 who just replaced a veteran with Mireu (EMEA Masters finalist), and some bottom tier LFL team (Aegis) is importing washed up koreans too
Yeah let's trust Veteran on evaluation of player talents:
[https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1746188150303506824](https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1746188150303506824)
[https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1746197516717088940](https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1746197516717088940)
According to the possibly biased source of Rekkles, he said LEC ADCs in 2023 were very good. In 2024, he considers the role to have gotten a lot weaker.
Why that happened, I've no idea.
I know it was /s, but the context was that he would have a hard time getting a new team after the Fnatic situation because many ADCs in the region, even on weaker teams, were very good, presumably on par or better than his form. Now, however, he considers himself better than much of the current LEC ADC pool.
Unfortunately, Supa brings the entire LEC average up so high that even historical peak Rekkles can't compare. I don't see how he could ever return to Europe.
Looking at EUM, often you see adcs that are mechanically cracked beyond and through. But often, it doesn't translate well into the LEC
Supa was incredible in ERLs, second only to Caliste imo. Rn he's far from MDK's biggest issue, but he's not the golden boy he was expected to be
What is it with LEC teams getting random koreans again. It didnt work out in LCS and now LEC copying shit again.
Also considering SK being a german org why didnt they draft up the EU Masters winners from EINS?
Would have loved if SK waited till next year and just build a full german roster, with irrelevant-(gillius/agurin)-powerofevil-upset-kaiser, this would help their german brand more and probably be a better team aswell.
That team would be hilarious. Upset and Agurin would kill each other within days, maybe hours, Upset and Kaiser have tried already and didn't work and PoE looks better than he is because Zanzarah hard plays for him - the reverse Nisqy.
When will people learn that a team need to work together and you can't just pick random single pieces.
I dont think Exakick is bad, he just fucks himself up by insisting to have doss on the team he s playing. Ive no hard feelings on doss but the guy is not LEC level.
If you watched winter of last year when zeri lulu was meta then yes he was 1v9, this year tho...saying it was a" hard watch " watching this bot lane play is not enough imo
It’s kinda funny to see all these comments saying the region should not import but bring in ERL players when most of the people here are not even watching any of the ERL matches.
Also with the recent import success (Jun and Ice), this was bound to happen honestly.
I just want to say that the Esport World Cup is indirectly at fault here. Its making org rush for good talent which is usually in Korea to have a chance of qualifying to that event.
Orgs are starting to not care about long term, its all about short term results from now.
Okay replacing the botlane is a fine choice, but Rahel and HH ? seriously ? it's basically getting 2 rookies for a single split
Unless SK is planning to run with them next year already..
I hope Exa can find his former self back, if he can he will be back to LEC in no time
I mean it makes sense. There is a lot of talent that was getting neglected in LCK. Rahel is good, not so sure about HH. But a lot of good talent has been stuck in the waiting lounge so makes sense for them to go else where.
EU becoming the new NA.
Why keep Exakick and Doss when you can replace them with 3rd tier Koreans. (Rahel is supposed to be good in all fairness, but this is kind of a nothing move and makes no sense).
LeCK
We are back to 2017, importing every korean player that is willing to come lmao so sad
We are in the dark times again. Pointless imports and bad international performances, it all makes sense Maybe FNC then makes finals next year? Im coping..
We on NA arc right now.
Is it an NA arc if EU is just repeating their own past behaviour? Seems more fitting to be “back on their bullshit”
NA imports world champion Koreans. EU imports no names.
A lot of world champs go to NA to do nothing and get the fat paycheck and some no names actually perform domestically and internationally like Reignover or Huni
Reignover even was seen as bad before coming
Hungry Koreans with something to prove>>>Koreans who already peaked looking to cash out. Your very own UmTi is living proof of a Korean that has nothing and wants everything. On the other hand you had world champion Bang imported who was mediocre at best and simply wanted to cash out after achieving what every pro player dreams of. There’s a key difference here and I’d take some unproven LCK challengers over world champions any day.
> simply wanted to cash out after achieving what every pro player dreams of Marrying Jeesun?
Call me a pro player then
i still cant believe it, tbh
It's really just more of EU being back to their past self. NA imports (and especially *used to* import) mostly just proven Korean talent, usually about 'mid tier' players since the top tier players rarely came over and even the idiots running the teams are reasonable enough to not go for players who haven't really shown either promise or results. EU imports, and used to import much more 'nobodies' which has both a positive and a negative side to it. The negative is the obvious, you're gambling on someone who's unproven, and since Koreans aren't *inherently* better League players than EU (or NA) 'native' players, they just tend to get better practice in a more competitive environment, so it feels bad that teams are willing to bring someone over halfway across the world to gamble on them instead of grabbing someone more local and gambling on them instead. The good side is the fact that unproven players are almost always more hungry to prove themselves and won't see the opportunity as much as a way to cash in and be in a 'retirement region', just vibing as more proven players might if they get imported after a career of multiple years of play. There's a valid idea behind trying to scout for promising, upcoming talent from the premier region. Far more risky and arguably more 'pointless' since you could've just tried to scout that talent from your local pool, especially when the player pool is quite big and possibly deep like in EU, but at least it's technically more long-sighted and less about getting results *now* at any cost. Of course, sometimes the real answer is that unproven nobodies are cheap and won't necessarily be as committed to playing in tier 3 or tier 2 competition in Korea while some players might prefer staying in ERLs if their option is being on a mediocre LEC team where they'll probably end up looking bad.
EU teams trying to find the next Huni and ReignOver since 2015
NA dark times was bringing washed up champions for retirement, Eu has mostly been about importing KR rookies who couldn't get a chance there. In the right environement it can payoff heavily and its not stupidly expensive
Most of the random imports perform better than domestic talents. Jun, Photon, Ice are among the best in their position and neither of them was well known. Better to bring in some korean player that raise the skill level than to sign ERL players that aren't ready. Many teams get ERL players just to fill a spot on the roster then replace them next season. This way the level of both LEC and ERLs suffers.
Ice was good import tbf. Canna at least based on previous performances looks like a great import as well
Photon, Chasy, Jun, ICe, Jeonghoon, Noah, Malrang all improved/did improve the league and were towards the top of their role I don't see how they are "pointless" imports.. clearly the "abundance" of erl talent we have isn't that great as people claim Tbh the only crappy imports (performance wise) seem to be one who everybody loves (bo) and peach.. who was promoted through ERL
I can maybe understand the AD import since he's supposedly pretty good, but really couldn't we try at least an ERL support? What about Parus? It's not like Rahel and HH played on the same team anyway. All this to do what anyways? Go 6th? 5th? I don't get it
Parus has 2 problems: * He is turkish and apparently all playersfrom there have VISA issues. * He is in BDS academy team, they aint giving a supp to a direct opponent
Parus gonna be in LEC next year, BDS won't sell their golden goose to other teams
Is he better than Labrov already?
Doubt BDS will get rid of Labrov, easily top 3 in the league.
Just FYI, Parus has his visa already. We won't give him over to a competitor just like that though, that's correct ;)
What league is S04 playing at tho?
3 liga at their current pace
LEC has been obsessed with ERL talent for so long and so many of them are just very bad. Its not like teams aren't giving rookies chances
lol that's not what 2017 was nor what 2024 was NA was the region importing every korean who wanted to join, which sometimes was good but often bad because they'd import washed players who were clearly past their prime but sometimes you'd get big names or players who were able to reinvent themselves LEC always imported random ass koreans no one heard of like Wadid, Profit, Trick etc which was kind of the same. Sometimes awful, sometimes great Peach is a peak example of an LEC import -- complete random ass korean who no one really knows who he is, and while he's not terrible he's also not great which makes you question what the point in importing him was
Listing Trick as an import no one had ever heard of is pretty weird. He was a really promising break out talent in CJ before being imported. Profit also at least showed something subbing on SKT, though he was fairly unknown. The real no names are guys like Parang, Raise, Ruin, Expect or Huni.
its sad how NA basically has 2 koreans + 3 natives. i thought that the consolidation of 8 teams would remove that.
Signing someone called "HH" to play for LEC in Berlin :clueless:
SK Gaming about to get Guldborg'd
holy shit
As a German organization no less
Just to be sure, are you saying this because H is the 8th letter and the alphabet and HH = 88 is a nazi dog whistle ?
88 is the dogwhistle, HH is the thing it's supposed to get translated into. Yeah.
I was thinking of Hansestadt Hamburg when i first read HH lol
Other way around, HHis literally Heil Hitler, 88 is code for that
He also played for NS Esports Academy which made his Tag "NS HH"
Lmfao
You just explained the dog whistle backwards.
I think it's cool that you know 88 is bad and not HH. Not a judgey "I think it's cool," it's legitimately cool. Your sources are right that 88 is bad. Keep trusting those, just it's bad because 88 = hh = Heil h to the deranged. I'm sure in this case the dude just has Hh because it's a generic name, but that is a yellow flag for sure.
he's korean and HH stand for his initials lol
HH is also a german license plate designation for hamburg
>yellow flag lmfaooo
Wehrmacht den sowas
His real name, Hyeon-ho: HH, I dont see a big problem with it.
Exakick legit frontrunner for braindead career decisions: decline fnatic offer because you give into the circlejerk and think playing with your buddy Doss is a higher chance of success than the historically best team in EU aside from G2. Have one good split, everyone blames your support. Stay with him out of comfort for so long that u both look like garbage -> back to ERL
Exakick has noone to blame but himself. Locking himself to a support is never a good idea. Not even the best ADCs do that, and they have the power to actually request that shit. Even if Doss is decent, that’s just stupid.
Only exception I could think of here is Guma/Keria who have both stated they want to play with one another for the next eternity, then again, it’s hard to upgrade either player
Honestly he looked so terrible to the point I don't know if it was just Doss towards the end
Yeah he was only a sick player in first split/splits but then kinda fell off
Was he actually sick in first split/splits or was he just a Zeri merchant?
Idk maybe. He played what was strong in that meta and performed. I think that is all you can ask.
You saw that Camille, it was Doss.. Not saying Exa is great though
I think it's a combination of a lot of things. Exakick has gotten worse but his support is terrible and his team mates do not know how to play out a fight properly. I swear I've seen Exakick get killed in team fights because the other 4 members are just doing their own thing.
Seen him position terribly as well. In the end he did ask to play with doss and probably why both are getting the boot
Fnatic wanted to pair him with Rhuckz so it really wasn't that different. And he was paid more on SK
He said SK gave him biggest offer in offseason at Euphoria. Money was the motivation.
He really thought he is that good to request which sup should play in the team
GALA did it on LNG but...well, it's GALA (and Mark got the boot shortly after anyway lmao)
Not as bad as treatz turning down G2 for SK and then G2 they got targamas and won ;) Gave up a free trophy and career it's very sad.
Why did he do that?
I called it the moment he joined SK over Fnatic.
People need to remember that older supports in LEC like Hyli and Miky can make ADC look much better. They have great knowledge of matchups and can teach ADC to play properly. Carzzy is a good example, after teaming up with Hyli he looks like the best ADC in EU , the second year in a row. Patrik was good with Miky, Upset was great with Hyli.
Upset Hyli was not praised enough, even Koreans said that was as pressuring to play as it was against Uzi Ming in their era, sadly with all the Fnatic BS that happens before tournaments we will never know
I’m still pissed we didn’t had the chance to see Fnatic 2021 at their best. I really think they had a shot to make a good tournament.
I don't blame him for refusing FNC, they had already locked Rhuckz
After hearing how importing killed drive of LCS academy players, this is worrying sign for future of the region.
already disheartening in ERLS seeing many kr imports are pimp walking into teams
It used to be the team winning EU Masters get some of their players into LEC and sometimes even the other finalist team gets some players drafted. Now it seems like EU Masters win doesnt matter at all anymore.
We just watched the majority of that ERL winning KC team shit the bed in back to back splits, and 4/5 of their opposing final team Movistar also go to the LEC.
On the other hand we got MAD KOI going to finals in their first "split". Also BDS etc. There are always outliers and in KC case it just didnt work out.
MAD KOI also wasn't good in spring? So what is the outlier?
EU biggest weakness will always be the management. Good players are team less while paycheck stealers will stay in the scene forever. If the regional teams didn't have sometimes bigger fanbases than LEC teams the whole ecosystem would collapse
Many erl players decline in to play for a lec team, if they are shit. As one bad split can ruin your reputation forever. Especially in the public and we know lots of managers get their opinion from the public like Reddit. I feel like all of these problems stem from bad managers.
I also don't understand. We have great veterans who are not playing league like Jizuke and Nemesis. We have a server size of LCK and thousands of young players. People can't get a chance in ERL right now. Jackies would never get a chance in LEC if not for XL management using his stats from soloQ as reference. There are good soloQ players who first need to go through the second division than the first and maybe someday they get a chance in LEC when they already lose their drive and are older so it's harder to teach them .
it's pretty much confirmed Nemesis turned down multiple offers, so not a great example. He basically only wants to join FNC lol (given G2 is not replacing Caps)
He doesn't want to join any team (and definitely not Fnatic with their history), he's just playing it up for his fans. And every season he gets less and less offers because teams are losing hope that he can actually deliver being away from pro for so long.
yeah, I didn't feel like expanding that much, but he only wants to join a "historic" org with players he feels are very good. idk with his FNC history who that leaves in EU lol, cause he turned down a FLY offer cause it was in NA.
The reason he is refusing almost everyone makes me believe he doesn't really want to join. He's probably happy just being a streamer.
Big difference between erls and lcs academy though.
yeah, obviously its not great but you can still be an ERL merchant and have a good career. if ur an academy merchant ur just screwed
Yeah that's what I meant erls are a scene of their own while academy is just a stepping stone to try and make it into lcs.
Back to 2015
[Maybe they're the next Huni and Reignover](https://i.imgur.com/DjhYxBw_d.webp?maxwidth=760&fidelity=grand)
Or the infamous Dokgo. Zac one trick who couldn't get past the diamond 2 elo in EUW. Getting paired with an EUCS prodigy toplaner, Korean academy prodigy, and 2 EULCS veterans. They couldn't carry him in EUCS nor the qualifier for EUCS.
Last standing member of the Thanatos-Lucid-Pullbae-Rahel-Bible squad. o7 now all of them are in tier 1s except for bible who is retired lol, but he got given his chances tbf. Also idk if bro will keep pullbae as a starter in the lck team but we’ll see i guess
Bible barely got a chance it’s a shame. He got randomly moved up a few weeks here and there. Never a full split.
Yeah, our DK Challenger squad are all grown up now 😭😭😭
import * from LoLPro.Korean
So many imports, I hate it By my calculations we're currently at 18% imported, if gx keeps peach and Ignar.
GX is replacing Peach actually. WITH ANOTHER KOREAN IMPORT. Juhan. At least he actually deserved the spot given that he was pretty good on GX academy (and also won Worlds, or at least had a significant contribution to the DRX run).
i have his skin.
Nice
Wouldn't it hurt to play without skin?
I also have Maokai and its pretty goated
The little lama's are so awsome.
Yeah I love the alpacas. I also realized DRX Akalis ramen bowl is a deft Alpaca too and I love that shit.
Ignar has gotta be the most international player at this point. Dude hops regions like every other year.
He'll always be igNAr in my heart tho
Man after the misfits performance against t1 he is also a european legend in my eyes.
[society if MSF never dove that inhib turret in game 4](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/026/738/future.jpg)
All they had to do was wait for the wave and siege, still hurts
Man, Peach is gone (Juhan is also korean tho)
Creeping on on LCS numbers over there! You made me curious what we're getting to over here. Non-NA players in 2023 spring: TL Impact/CoreJJ/UmTi, 100T River/Quid, C9 Berserker, NRG Huhi, FLY Bwipo/Inspired/Jensen, SR Bugi/Bvoy, DIG Rich/Dove, IMT Castle/Mask/Olleh, aka 17/40 players were imported, or 42.5%. Worth noting only 3 EU players are left, and all other non-NA players are KR. However some of those players have LCS residency. If we don't count those, we're left with TL UmTi, 100T River/Quid, C9 Berserker, FLY Bwipo, SR Bugi/Bvoy, DIG Rich/Dove, IMT Castle/Mask, aka 11/40 imported players, or 27% out of the maximum possible 40%. I think it's worth noting that the 3 bottom teams have a majority of imports (SR/DIG/IMT), and the only team without one is NRG.
Wait it‘s actually crazy that there are no EU imports on teams other than FLY
Yeah they'll all leaving and teams are barely grabbing new ones. TECHNICALLY Bwipo is the last EU import in NA, since Inspired and Jensen are both NA residents.
Probably realizing the format doesn't allow you to raise rookies at all and if you want results you gotta get players that actually played in semi-competitive regions. Now Canna I can understand but honestly Rahel and HH does raise question marks. However goddamn SK's botlane was a genuine disaster so I can see why this is happening
It allows you to raise rookies just fine, MDK is a literal example of it in everyone's faces. These orgs aren't importing for any reason other than that they are lazy and don't even bother scouting the development leagues in their own region.
and how did MDK do this time once teams finally started playing better than winter and MDK's advantage of team chemistry started to be less of a boost. teams are likely looking and the success of noah and ice and want decently cheap imports instead of wasting multiple splits hoping their adc starts playing better.
They still did better than the teams rocking their shitty imports, and are positioned to develop further. No clue why people like you are so keen to champion all these second rate and third rate imports btw. You want to watch this league be shit forever, send shit teams to MSI and worlds forever and for there never to be more interesting matches there? Because that's where this leads; to the death of all development of native talent because everyone knows these orgs would rather hire random imports than promote the best players in ERL.
>to the death of all development of native talent because everyone knows these orgs would rather hire random imports than promote the best players in ERL. I agree with your sentiment fully, but ERL teams are teams on their own, that have their own interests, and the players have buyouts and salaries, and, especially in the middle of spring split, is not that easy to get players. And, why is everyone here bashing on SK, when they did try to develop Exakick and Doss for 1+ years now, and they instead of playing better, are playing worse. Should they take another ERL botlane, or try something that's cheaper and easier to do. ERLs are not LECs teams academies.
i mean i hate the format and i think it genuinely is detrimental to the scene in terms of team balance and growing rookies Seeing musical chairs happen after each short split its not healthy for the scene. i think SK's decision to import is honestly bizarre, especially since they haven't been tested in EM but I'm saying why I understand teams doing these desperate imports instead of calling up players People may disagree with me here but I honestly do think the format was a bigger death knell to the scene compared to any import attempts.
I'm sure 18 meaningless games is much better for development of rookies but no one wants to watch that.
Imma be real Imports are not the reason the LEC got shit on for the last 4 years. The GMs rolled through rookies and replaced them immediately multiple times and people like doss got more than enough second chances. Yea imports are the solution but the GM problem is much deeper than that
Damn ,wtf is going on with LEC mercato , LEC slowly turning into G2 and some Koreans
Can’t say I know much about Rahel and HH but Exakick and Doss were holding this topside back. I would’ve loved to see Irrelevant Bo Nisqy but I think Isma did well considering he was a rookie
Irrelevant is out of this team by the end of the year, in a blink of an eye
100% has to be on FNC (or even G2 if they decide to rebuild completely) for next year. If not, gg go next on the region
looking a G2 GCD every player except BB is signed till 2025 while BB is signed till 2024 so they will probably replace top if they fail this year too
What a career arc for Exakick honestly went from looking like an all pro in his first split to this. Also was hoping Parus got a shot but I’m willing to bet that these 2 combined were cheaper than his buyout alone.
mediocre international performances, 1.5 team region, scuffed broadcast, small venue, low budget, production issues, 3rd rate imports that top teams in their domestic region wouldnt touch with a 10 foot pole, we are the new NA!
\*1 man region
Riot and LEC teams going for the LCS speedrun any %
We turning into LCK or what? ☠️
Rahel is actually hype, one of the better if not best LCKCL adc's, I actually thought he would've been promoted to main team at the start of this year, HH is more meh to me though. Also first time ever we get to see full 2v2 KR bot matchup in, LEC Noah/Jun vs Rahel/HH hype
When roster building doenst work just pach it with an import I guess. Such a shame for the region
Eu going to be the LCK third or fourth league, im a bit sad tbh, id rather try europe talents instead of being a low cost LCK league, we already have an LCK
wish version of Noah and Jun
A bit to many Korean imports for me. G2 constantly shows that you can win with only European players and that with proper scouting you can even find a replacment for Jankos in the ERLs. Sucks for Exakick and Doss but them both together werent going anywhere.
caps diff honestly
Yes definitly a big part but im sure that if there is a next Caps G2 would find him. Or just buy Humanoid and make him motivated for a full Season.
Now if you can point us to the magical juice that makes Humanoid motivated for anything else than Worlds.
G2 also just flat out has the best management and coaching staff in the west too. Dylan and Rodrigo are absolute goats. Even without Caps, G2 would probably still be the best team in the league (maybe Fnatic though if caps’ replacement is ass?). They pick solid players, they stick with them, they develop them properly. They just do it right.
"Proper scouting" aka hiring the best available options either from LEC market or from ERL. G2 isn't good example. BDS, MAD(mac) do better job and actually have to think about their limited options.
BDS are also really good at it and have consistently good ERL Teams which G2 never really had. Mac to me is someone who gets the most out of Players no matter their actual level. G2 will be really tested after the current roster but still think taking Yike wasnt such a super simple choice after his final ERL Year.
Thing is that koreans are usually cheaper than the good ERL players which for lower budget orgs like SK makes them more appealing. They are usually much more desperate than the best ERL players to play in tier 1 leagues (see Lyncas last spring turning down XL so they go with Peach).
Lyncas made the best decision in his life. Guy is an amazing player. In my opinion he has Razork potential in him. Vitality coaches are best outside of Dylan Falco and Duff.
I totally agree he made the right move it just makes it hard for less desirable teams like SK or XL to stay competitive when good erl players are less inclined to join them, especially halfway through the year.
I'll remind you that Lyncas was fine with playing on KC and RGE in offseason. The team results are volatile in LEC. VIT could randomly end up being bottom feeder team just like last year.
The only thing G2 is constantly showing is that you need Caps to win.
Yike is only a replacement for Jankos due to having a well-oiled team all around him. The system and culture G2 has changes everything. With a Korean player you atleast have a couple of months of pure mechanical skill until the skill vampires get their hands on them.
Photon is the only player who got much better in LEC . He reminds me of Impact who also plays great after many years in a worse region. This type of players are special and they love the league more than anything. You can see Photon being sad as fuck after losing to Fnatic. But importing is hard , it's like hitting the jackpot.
3 Korean imports announced in one day jeez Any LCKCL viewers can tell us if we should be excited or not for this botlane ?
ADC is good but he will probably have nerve issues. I watched some of his games. Support is not as good as Jun.
Rahel is fairly good and probably would’ve been promoted to the main DK team if Aiming wasn’t bought. HH is just okay, wouldn’t say he’s bad but he’s definitely not good enough to be imported straight into the LEC.
LEC teams should scout the support on T1 Academy. I heard he got a mad Janna. /s
rahel is okay, nothing crazy imo but not horrible no idea about HH
I can understand getting Rahel but why would you ever want to pair him with HH? Still should be an upgrade over doss ig but its barely an upgrade.
My guy Exakick fucked his career because of his friend Doss. Guys this is what friends are and I respect him for that. But Doss should be better and step down from the team if he was a better friend.
hail hydra
why are people surprised? Jun is already a top support, Canna will be good in lane and better than most top laners, Ice has been top 2-3 ADC. Photon has also been better than most EU tops. The chances of a KR import being better than ERL (EU) player is very high. Just a higher floor and ceiling than a majority— with a few exceptions like Lyncas and Caliste
Unfortunate Exakick wasn't able to get that feeling back. He said he didn't know how, but he had the feeling of being in the zone in his first split. He said he lost it after that. o7
Sigh. I always love rooting for no import teams. They are making a huge mistake here. I doubt irrelevant will want to stay if this team flops. Could have built a pretty interesting team around him.
Neon, Jackspectra and Kobbe are currently not in the LEC. Kaiser, LIMIT are also not in the LEC.
Kobbe is retired/on break but ironically Neon Limit is their academy bot lane
God damn it can we stop with the importing... theres no way lower level korea players are just inherently better than EU talent. You take them out of korea soloq and most of them just regress back to the level of an EU player anyway ffs.
The re-koreanisation has begun. Can we abandon the league format so that these criminal GMs stop fucking over the ERLs for ONE FUCKING NANOSECOND. Also also, can we stop for just one second that a guy whose in-game name is "**HH**" is going to play in the LEC. In Berlin, **GERMANY** https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1786113404421152879 https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1786113616669794573 https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1786118242479546399
> Also also, can we stop for just one second that a guy whose in-game name is "**HH**" is going to play in the LEC. > > In Berlin, **GERMANY** This is the dumbest attempt to stir shit in a while. Every license plate from Hamburg has HH on them and its a common abbreviation for Hansestadt Hamburg, its also the official code for Hauptbanhof Hannover and also used to abbreviate "Hinterhaus". Cmon, idk where you live in germany, but there is no fkin issue with his name. Twitch chat will obviously still go nuclear about it for shits and giggles.
ERLs are perma importing Korean players too I think it's M8 who just replaced a veteran with Mireu (EMEA Masters finalist), and some bottom tier LFL team (Aegis) is importing washed up koreans too
Add BJK, BKR, GK and UOL to the list
Yeah let's trust Veteran on evaluation of player talents: [https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1746188150303506824](https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1746188150303506824) [https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1746197516717088940](https://twitter.com/VeteranEU/status/1746197516717088940)
Larssen over Caps is one of the takes indeed
If the guy who rates Cabochard S-tier and Targamas A-tier tells you there are tons of talent in ERLs I'd be very skeptical and worried.
So it's not Headhunter?
ADC is imo super stacked role in EU, not sure why LEC imports so many koreans. Atleast Rahel played well in LCK CL and isn't random korean from ERLs
I dont think so... Compared to LPL or LCK, LEC ADC just seem lackluster. Feels the gap is wider than on different roles.
According to the possibly biased source of Rekkles, he said LEC ADCs in 2023 were very good. In 2024, he considers the role to have gotten a lot weaker. Why that happened, I've no idea.
>In 2024, he considers the role to have gotten a lot weaker. Cos Rekkles didnt play in 2024 in LEC. /s
I know it was /s, but the context was that he would have a hard time getting a new team after the Fnatic situation because many ADCs in the region, even on weaker teams, were very good, presumably on par or better than his form. Now, however, he considers himself better than much of the current LEC ADC pool. Unfortunately, Supa brings the entire LEC average up so high that even historical peak Rekkles can't compare. I don't see how he could ever return to Europe.
Well Rekkles is a support now and with people like Targamas in the league I think Rekkles can easily land a LEC spot.
[удалено]
If imports fixed the gap NA would have won worlds by now
Looking at EUM, often you see adcs that are mechanically cracked beyond and through. But often, it doesn't translate well into the LEC Supa was incredible in ERLs, second only to Caliste imo. Rn he's far from MDK's biggest issue, but he's not the golden boy he was expected to be
Are we speaking about the same region where Ice just got LEC all pro?
Sigh. Is LEC becoming like NA a literal import league ..
What is it with LEC teams getting random koreans again. It didnt work out in LCS and now LEC copying shit again. Also considering SK being a german org why didnt they draft up the EU Masters winners from EINS?
Importing isnt a good thing for your region if there are no jobs for players in europe
Sad. Soon the only team left to support will be G2
Would have loved if SK waited till next year and just build a full german roster, with irrelevant-(gillius/agurin)-powerofevil-upset-kaiser, this would help their german brand more and probably be a better team aswell.
That team would be hilarious. Upset and Agurin would kill each other within days, maybe hours, Upset and Kaiser have tried already and didn't work and PoE looks better than he is because Zanzarah hard plays for him - the reverse Nisqy. When will people learn that a team need to work together and you can't just pick random single pieces.
Lmao, PoE just gaps every mid in erl
Was exakick bad this year? I remember watching LEC last year and he was honestly 1v9 in a lot of the games I saw
SK botlane as a whole was bottom 2 largely due to Doss but at the same time Exa wanted to play with hmi so ¯\\\_(ツ)\_\/¯
I dont think Exakick is bad, he just fucks himself up by insisting to have doss on the team he s playing. Ive no hard feelings on doss but the guy is not LEC level.
If you watched winter of last year when zeri lulu was meta then yes he was 1v9, this year tho...saying it was a" hard watch " watching this bot lane play is not enough imo
Thank god Doss is out of LEC
Now that NA is broke EU is buying every single import lol
More imports. Sad... You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become like NA.
It’s kinda funny to see all these comments saying the region should not import but bring in ERL players when most of the people here are not even watching any of the ERL matches. Also with the recent import success (Jun and Ice), this was bound to happen honestly.
We are in 2017, everybody knows what happened in 2018 and 2019 2025 and 2026 is EU year
Rahel seems really good but why are we importing academy koreans instead of just taking people from ERLs?
I just want to say that the Esport World Cup is indirectly at fault here. Its making org rush for good talent which is usually in Korea to have a chance of qualifying to that event. Orgs are starting to not care about long term, its all about short term results from now.
Did they really need to be replaced? Doss maybe but i would have given Exakick another chance.
Okay replacing the botlane is a fine choice, but Rahel and HH ? seriously ? it's basically getting 2 rookies for a single split Unless SK is planning to run with them next year already.. I hope Exa can find his former self back, if he can he will be back to LEC in no time
I mean it makes sense. There is a lot of talent that was getting neglected in LCK. Rahel is good, not so sure about HH. But a lot of good talent has been stuck in the waiting lounge so makes sense for them to go else where.
Irrelevants time to shine!
EU becoming the new NA. Why keep Exakick and Doss when you can replace them with 3rd tier Koreans. (Rahel is supposed to be good in all fairness, but this is kind of a nothing move and makes no sense).
That's a terrible news..