Copenhagen Wolves has quickly found replacements for its departing veterans.
The team, embroiled in controversy over a supposedly poor environment, which was later exacerbated by the release of private logs involving team management, found itself needing replacements for its two most veteran players. Joey “Youngbuck” Steltenpool and Petar “Unlimited” Georgiev both wanted out, stating they’d continue to honor their contracts until the Wolves found suitable replacements.
The team has done just that, recruiting two rookie players from Belgium. That means Steltenpool and Georgiev, who have competed on Wolves since June 2013, may have already played their last matches in the uniform.
Lenny Uytterhoeven will man the top lane for Wolves this week while Christophe “je suis kaas” van Oudheusden taking the support position. The two players have no experience in the League Championship Series (LCS), but they’ve competed on the fringes of professional League of Legends for a while.
Support player Kaas, whose alias translates to “I am cheese” from a conglomeration of French and Dutch, has maintained a top ten rank in solo queue for most of this season, an impressive feat for a support player. He currently sits at #5 on the Europe West ladder. He most recently competed on Challenger Series team Ex Nihilo before they brought in Lewis “NoXiAK” Felix for some more LCS experience.
The 21-year-old top laner Uytterhoeven competed under the alias “Vcom Fan” for teams like LowLandLions Black and most recently Caseking Gaming over the past year and a half, but he’ll go by the moniker Lenny in the LCS.
The team Copenhagen Wolves will take into the Summoner’s Rift for the remainder of the season certainly won’t look like any in their previous history. But while the Wolves themselves have never truly had great success in the LCS, usually falling just below the playoff threshold but maintaining their position in the league, they’ve always had success at introducing new talents. Players like Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, and Konstantinos “FORG1VEN” Tzortziou were developed by the Wolves before they moved on to bigger things.
Of course, you can’t put players like Kaas or Lenny into that category, but who knows? Stranger things have happened. For now, though, they’ll be concerned with staying in the LCS. Wolves currently sits last in the standings with a 2-8 record, one game behind Gambit Gaming and SK Gaming, meaning the team will be automatically relegated at season’s end unless they improve their results. That may be tough to do with two rookies in the lineup, but sometimes fresh and hungry faces are what a team needs, especially after the trials Wolves endured this season.
Photo via Riot Games/Flickr
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