Many European Regional Leagues in Europe foster the development of future League of Legends European Championship players. They also gather a lot of players that played there previously. However, it’s impossible to actively watch all of those leagues and, on certain days, some even run simultaneously. It can be difficult to know about all the players who are performing well at the moment.
Therefore, Alejandro “anonimotum” Gomis and I decided to attempt to make a “top three” of the current best-performing ERL players. We asked the opinion of a dozen anonymous professionals working in ERLs, averaged out the answeres, got feedback on our list and came up with a final ranking.
Top lane
1. Cabochard
2. Oscarinin
3. Szygenda
Honorable mentions: Irrelevant, Agresivoo, Ragner, Sacre
Lucas “Cabochard” Simon-Meslet is a familiar name for a lot of older League of Legends fans. He played for year at the top of European competition and appeared at the League of Legends World Championship 2018 with Team Vitality. This year, with Karmine Corp, Cabochard is proving how valuable his experience is. He often makes highlight plays that carry his team on top of dominating his lane. Cabochard averages a plus-12.5 creep score and a plus-501 gold differential at 10 minutes.
The Spanish ERL also has a top laner dominating in lane. Óscar “Oscarinin” Muñoz Jiménez is having an incredible performance consistently winning hard his lane, sometimes without his jungler help. Some professionals told Upcomer they expect to see him in the LEC soon.
Oscarinin averages a plus-15.5 creep score and a plus-518 gold differential at 10 minutes. While those are significant numbers, he does so against a weaker top lane pool than the LFL, where our third top laner and honorable mentions play. Former LEC top laner Mathias “Szygenda” Jensen is having a great split and notable “1v9 performances” with his Gwen.
1. Maxi
2. Skeanz
3. 113
Honorable mentions: Haru, Rabble, Yike
Alongside Oscarinin, Magnus “Maxi” Kristensen is another Fnatic TQ player already making this list. Maxi has been a core component of this team during their 14-game winning streak and many more. All of the professionals we talked to rated him as a top three jungler for ERLs. Fun Fact: Maxi already played a game in the North American League of Legends Championship Series with Flyquest and that game resulted in a win.
Similarly to Maxi, Duncan “Skeanz” Marquet is having a successful split alongside Szygenda, with his team Vitality.Bee, and he had some real carry performances. Coming from Giants Gaming and now playing for Karmine Corp, Doğukan “113” Balci has impressed several already with how he’s unafraid to take risks. While he barely made the list over Kang “Haru” Min-seung (yes, that’s the former world champion), many professionals said that he was the player with the highest ceiling on this list and they they expected to see him in LEC within the coming year.
Mid lane
1. EMENES
2. Eika
3. Saken
Honorable mentions: Czajek, Diplex, Tempt, Baca, Random
Jang “EMENES” Min-soo was first in almost all lists, which is understandable because he is absolutely crushing every lane with JD|XL in the Nordic ERL. EMENES averages a plus-9.5 creep score and a plus-561 gold differential at 10 minutes. On top of that, he averages 819 damage per minute, which is incredibly high on top of a 7.4 KDA. EMENES does seem to be the scariest laner in all of the ERLs, especially since he plays many different champions, like Kai’sa mid lane. However, the player wasn’t free of criticism as some told that he tends to play for himself and his lane too much.
.@EMENES_20010101 ??????
Is this legal? #NLC pic.twitter.com/Qx7ee64BZK
— NLC (@NLClol) February 2, 2022
While Jérémy “Eika” Valdenaire is not the newest talent, he had a remarkable performance in the LFL. His team LDLC OL are currently first place alongside Vitality.Bee, which wouldn’t be possible without the former Immortals mid laner stepping up. Lucas “Saken” Fayard is also playing well in the past weeks, even on champions such as Aurelion Sol, the EU masters champion doesn’t disappoint. Both Dimitri “Diplex” Ponomarev and Mateusz “Czajek” Czajka were close to making the list. While they didn’t have the most dominating performance as of late, they are often mentioned as future LEC players to look at and some very promising talents.
Bot lane
1. Rekkles
2. Jackspektra
3. Lucker
Honorable mentions: Crownshot, Bean, Jeskla
While there was a lot of discussion about who to have at third position on this list, the first and second position were almost unanimous. Martin “Rekkles” Larsson proves that he is above ERL bot laners; not because he is dominating fights or lanes but because his way of thinking of much higher. Whether it’s with waves, splitpushing or other macro calls, Rekkles knows when to be clutch and is consistently successful. Rekkles’ versatility and adaptability is often said to be unmatched.
As he almost made it into the LEC, Jakob “Jackspektra” Kepple proves in this split why he was scouted by so many teams. He carried a lot of games from A to Z for his team and also showed himself to be a versatile bot laner. Meanwhile AGO Rogue’s Damian “Lucker” Konefał is having a great split with his famous high KDA (currently at 21.1) and some highlight plays. Overall, the bot lane pool in Europe is stacked. Players such as Thomas “Exakick” Foucou and Ludvig Erik Hugo “SMILEY” Granquist were mentioned as players that could most likely do fine in the LEC despite not making the honorable mention list.
Support
1. Rhuckz
2. Erdote
3. Vander
Honorable mentions: Doss, Hantera, Prime, Jactroll
The support role is probably not the best position in Europe, but it’s also the one where opinions differed the most. Overall this was the hardest ranking to make. Known for his shotcalling, Rúben “rhuckz” Barbosa has also played a big part in Fnatic TQ’s 14-game winning streak. The Portuguese support is one of the best for laning phase while first in the Superliga for average assistances among supports. He is able to create early game advantages alongside Maxi, who can identify the win-conditions in every game and play for them.
Polish support Robert “Erdote” Nowak also had a notable performance for Team BDS Academy in the French ERL. Some professionals who spoke with us even debated whether he could be promoted to Team BDS LEC. The opposite happened with Oskar “Vander” Bogdan this year, as he now plays with Misfits Premier. However Vander is performing well while his team has been climbing the rankings in recent weeks. While few younger supports made the list, those such as Jules “Hantera” Bourgeois were again mentioned as those ERL players that have a lot of potential.
In 2021, Javier “Elyoya” Prades Batalla managed to win the LEC twice with MAD Lions following good gameplay in the Spanish ERL. These top three rankings are an attempt at crediting some of the best performing ERL players as it can be fun to determine who next the LEC players of tomorrow will be. With this in mind, a lot of upcoming talent is missing from this list as this highlights more who’s playing the best at the moment.
Published: Mar 2, 2022 01:32 pm