Former Fnatic player Martin “Rekkles” Larsson has reportedly reached a verbal agreement to join T1 Esports Academy in a shocking move for both Korean and European League of Legends.
T1 may have signed its first-ever European import. Rekkles is joining the new world champion organization as part of its tier-two roster, T1 Esports Academy. The agreement would come months after Rekkles ended his contract with Fnatic. The details come from League of Legends reporter LEC_Wooloo.
With Fnatic, Rekkles transitioned from ADC to the support role, only to be benched for the entirety of the 2023 LEC Summer Split. Rekkles showed interest in moving east back in 2017, and discussed a possible move to the LPL at the time. Now, Rekkles might be set to pull up roots and join one of the most popular organizations in the world.
Rekkles will join T1 Esports Academy, T1’s second team that competes in the LCK CL. One of the current members of T1 Esports Academy is mid laner Yoon “Poby” Sung-won who served as a temporary substitute for Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. Cloud9’s bot laner Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol played for T1 Esports Academy before joining the North American organization.
Rekkles is far from being the only Western player to join the T1 organization, and he isn’t actually the first to sign with T1’s League of Legends division. North American jungler Johnson “Gryffinn” Le recently joined T1 Academy, T1’s third team. T1 Academy competes in the LCK Academy Series, the tier-three circuit in South Korea. Gryffin rose to popularity through Twitch, then traveled to South Korea and took part in a tryout for T1 Academy. Gryffin shares the role with other two jungles who also joined the team in 2023.
Rekkles is reportedly joining T1 Esports Academy, T1’s secondary team. Despite his experience, Rekkles is not guaranteed a starting spot on the roster and chances of joining T1’s primary roster are slim.
LCK’s secondary leagues are almost as competitive as the main league. Current World Champions Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong, Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, and Mun “Oner” Hyeon-jun started their careers in the lower ranks of T1.
With an average age of 18, the players at this level are fighting for a chance to be called up to the main roster so the stakes are high. As one of the most stable and successful teams in the LCK, many trainees look to join T1. If Rekkles confirms his move to T1 Esports Academy, he faces a big challenge just getting into official matches.
Rekkles has shown to be willing to take on these kinds of challenges, as he showed by joining Karmine Corp when it was still part of the European Regional Leagues. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that fans end up seeing Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and Rekkles on the same team any time soon.
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