Right before the start of week four in the 2021 LEC Summer Split, Excel Esports has made a big roster change by promoting BT Excel’s rookie jungler Markoon and support Advienne to the main starting lineup.
The League of Legends team’s head coach YoungBuck made a statement today, saying that although the organization wants to have 10 strong players across both its LEC and NLC rosters, it also wants to have the five best performers on the main team to ensure the highest chance of success on-stage as the season goes on.
He explained that in the scrims leading up to the start of the summer, the LEC squad ran into some poor results that had a significant impact on the team dynamic and atmosphere. The coaching staff also started to raise questions on whether they were fielding the right roster for the split, which prompted them to hold a new set of internal tryouts between the LEC squad and the BTXL lineup. It was quickly determined that multiple BTXL players could stand toe-to-toe with their LEC counterpart.
As for Markoon and Advienne, both players are playing at an LEC level and are finally ready to take the stage. This jungle-support duo has a ton of experience playing alongside each other and has played well in both the recent Spring European Masters and 2021 NLC Summer Split.
Prior to this move, however, reports surfaced about the two players refusing to play for Excel’s LEC team back at the start of June. The organization’s co-founder Kieran Holmes-Darby responded to these claims, however, and said that Markoon and Advienne weren’t declining the promotion but simply wanted a bit more time to prepare for their swap to the big leagues.
“The players didn’t refuse to play in the LEC, but there was some hesitation and some of that was around how quickly said promotion would happen as they feel they would want more scrim time and practice before being promoted,” Holmes-Darby told Dot Esports.
Almost a month later, it looks like Markoon and Advienne are ready for the bright lights of the LEC. They’ll try to help Excel gain some ground on the rest of the competition since they’re tied for second-to-last place with a 2-5 record.
You can catch them in action when the 2021 Summer Split continues on Friday, July 2, where Excel will face off against G2 Esports.
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