LEC ’22: Rating the best signings in off season

This offseason might have been one of the saddest we’ve ever had as based LEC enjoyers; with Hans Sama and Inspired leaving for NA, Rekkles leaving for… France, and promisq staying in the LEC.

Thankfully, we’re here to bring a little bit of post-Christmas cheer back into your lives.

3. BrokenBlade to G2

Ah, finally. BrokenBlade has a real team.

I mean, hopefully. G2’s bot lane still needs to convince plenty of people, but their top laner spent last year convincing everyone exactly why he deserves to be on a great team. A mixed spell on TSM can’t really be held against him; who wouldn’t struggle sometimes over there?

Wunder was relied on a lot in summer to carry the side with strong side counter-picks but oft fell short, with small laning errors being cracked open into bigger problems quickly. If you need a carry top laner, BrokenBlade is your man.

Despite having a team who consistently needed holding up, BrokenBack- sorry, Blade – did everything he could to drag the lifeless corpse of Schalke 04 as high as he could. Now with Caps and Jankos in mid and jungle, top lane is going to be a party.

G2 finally have a spiritual successor to peak Wunder – though he might not be as elite as Wunder was back in 2019, he will play anything and pull out some crazy picks. This is the guy whose counterpick to Aatrox was Qiyana top. He’s got it, whatever it is.

Even if this doesn’t work, it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch. BB finally has a team to back him up

Sadge. Via GettyImages

2. Alphari to Vitality

There’s essentially no bigger upgrade, and Vitality have hit on something special with that topside.

Speaking of top lane carries…

Selfmade – and Vitality – had some top lane problems last year, to put it lightly. SLT was okay, Szygenda was alright, but both were raw and couldn’t carry from the top lane while being mediocre as a weakside player.

While both were pretty ‘eh’, Alphari is a superstar. One of the best top laners in the world, at least in lane, Alphari will collect small leads 1v1 and convert them into massive leads with any jungle help. With Selfmade at his side, Alphari will be near impervious in the top lane and is going to pick on any weak point you might have up there.

Leave your top laner on an island at your peril, and watch on in horror as they get picked apart by Selfmade, Alphari and probably Perkz too.

There’s essentially no bigger upgrade, and Vitality have hit on something special with that topside. It’s either going to explode, or implode massively – but once again, it’s going to be beautiful to watch for someone.

1. Humanoid to FNATIC

Don’t cry because it’s over….

We all know how excellent this move is.

Humanoid is what people were scared of when ‘EU mids, man’ was the phrase of the moment. Perfect nominative determinism; Humanoid is basically a robot designed to play mid lane perfectly who has cut out the few mistakes he used to have.

“If Humanoid stopped dying in the sidelane, he’d be unstoppable”, turned out to be absolutely correct. MAD Lions were comfortably the best team in the region, and that was largely down to Humanoid’s stable yet superb performance. Equally capable of playing control mages and the more aggressive picks, Humanoid is the perfect player for FNATIC’s bot lane to play off.

Hylissang and Upset want to perma-fight and flip the game? Humanoid will be stable, gain some small leads and support them. Hyli wants to perma-gank mid? Guess who’s the best player in the league to set up for?

Humanoid might be the best mid FNATIC have ever had, and definitely the best one since Caps left. FNATIC – once again – have the best player in the league.