The GIANTX 2024 roster looks like a nice mix of veterans and new players – but the true rookie of the team could be the most important element of the team’s success.
The 2024 LEC Winter Split is starting tomorrow! All 10 teams have locked in their rosters, eagerly awaiting the start of the split to prove they are the best of the best. We have looked at 6 teams so far: Team Heretics, G2 Esports, Fnatic, Karmine Corp, SK Gaming and MAD Lions KOI, but there’s still 4 squads left.
The next on the line is GIANTX, the lovechild of Excel Esports and Giants Gaming, who put together a great mix of players – but all of their Winter split comes down to the performance of their rookie midlaner.
Excel Esports in 2023
Excel Esports was THE weakest team in the LEC for most of last year. Even though they put a superteam together, Odoamne, Xerxe, Vetheo, Patrik and Targamas finished 10th in the first ever LEC Winter Split. While they made changes by bringing in LIMIT and swapping Vetheo for Abbedage at the end of Spring 2023, they couldn’t manage to escape the Regular Split, missing the Group Stage both times.
The team changed immensely after they let Xerxe go in favour of young Korean jungler Peach. While Peach didn’t become the carry of the team (outside of 2 insane Lee Sin matches), he was a stable player who the rest of the team could rely on. Last Summer, Excel Esports made it into Groups for the first time, and they didn’t stop until the Summer Playoffs Finals – mostly thanks to Odo spearheading a number of games.
They almost completed their miracle run after getting into the Season Finals with two catastrophic and one great split – but after losing to Team BDS in the match for 4th place, they were out of the competition. This year, they are returning with 3 members from the old cast, but brought in some reinforcements: one from the LCS and one from the ERL’s.
GIANTX 2024 Roster
- Top: Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu
- Jungle: Lee “Peach” Min-gyu
- Mid: Adam “Jackies” Jerábek
- ADC: Patrik “Patrik” Jíru
- Support: Lee “Ignar” Dong-geun
A Surprisingly Good Core
The three players that remained from the last iteration of Excel Esports is Odoamne, Peach and Patrik. Odo and Patrik were no brainers, as they had great performances even when the team was struggling. The Weakside King, Odoamne was as reliable as ever, but toplane wasn’t in a state last Winter and Spring that you could carry from the role outside of a few select picks like Gwen and K’Sante (which Odo managed a few times over the two splits).
Patrik was one of the most reliable ADC’s of last year with a great champion pool, just not the type to go and 1v9 the opposite team. He’s a slower player, preferring his hypercarries over something like a Draven, but has shown proficiency with Kalista as well. After LIMIT was signed, he looked much better, but other parts of the team just didn’t click in time.
Peach was the saviour of the team, although he wasn’t a star players, just someone that ganked mid and didn’t let the sidelanes fall behind. He is a quieter player with some specks of brilliance, but he still needs to grow in order for GIANTX to excel in the LEC.
Support from Overseas
While LIMIT was a clear upgrade from 2023 Winter Targamas (who can show his growth as a player for Karmine Corp), GIANTX managed to find an even better support: IgNar, who is returning to the EMEA scene after spending 4 years in the LCS. The Korean player has been one of the best supports of the North American league, making it to Worlds Playoffs on NRG. While he played mostly tank supports last year, the poke/Ardent Censer meta that seems to be creeping back into League of Legends is also familiar grounds for him – even though he was the metabreaker in the last Ardent-era.
Peach Worked, Why Shouldn’t Jackies?
The biggest question mark in this team is rookie midlaner Jackies – who didn’t even join the LEC from the bigger ERL’s such as the LFL or the LVP SuperLiga, but from the Czech tournament, the Hitpoint Masters. While Jackies smurfed the opposition there, and he had a good champ pool with an aggressive playstyle, he didn’t prove himself in yet, not even in the EMEA Masters, as he never made it past the Play-Ins. While Jackie could be an incredible move from the scouts of GIANTX, he could also be the downfall of the team.
GIANTX 2024 Predictions
Overall, GIANTX could be a perfect middle-of-the-pack team that has a shot at getting higher in the rankings – if Jackies works out. For the time being however, GIANTX could be the second-weakest team in the League, only “surpassed” by MAD Lions KOI, who have even more question marks. This doesn’t mean that GIANTX is a bad team, nor does it mean that Patrik, Odo and IgNar are not great players – but they did struggle last year. We’ll have to see how they fare tomorrow – hopefully, they can prove me wrong!