Odoamne on Excel’s LEC Start: “Disappointing, Directionless, Leadershipless”

The League of Legends EMEA [Europe, Middle East, and Africa] Championship (LEC) kicked off its first-ever Winter Split in January and after three weeks of jam-packed action, the Group Stage of the split starts tomorrow on 11th February. With the new, revamped format, the bottom two teams at the end of the regular split get eliminated. Excel Esports and Fnatic were the two teams that had a subpar performance in the first nine games and found themselves out of the running in the LEC 2023 Winter Split. Excel Esports had a major wake-up call after winning only one game. 

At the start of the year, fans and analysts held Excel Esports in high regard. Excel Esports was named one of the top contenders of the LEC this year due to the sheer promise and power of the new roster. During the off-season, Excel Esports rejigged its roster and picked up veteran player Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu, who won the 2022 LEC Summer Split alongside Rogue. The team consists of powerhouse players including Odoamne, Patrik "Patrik" Jírů, Vincent "Vetheo" Berrié, Raphaël "Targamas" Crabbé, and Andrei "Xerxe" Dragomir.

After the disappointing split, Excel Esports and its players apologized to their fans and reflected on what went wrong. Excel CEO Tim Reichert acknowledged that the team did not work together and that there was no synergy. Reichert noted that the team will work hard and guaranteed to do better in the future.

Odoamne on Excel’s LEC Winter Split performance

On 7th February, Odoamne tweeted, “Speedrun LEC 1st to 10th place is complete. Absolute cringe split overall honestly and a great negative record. Can only go higher from here honestly.” The top laner opened up about the team’s performance in Excel’s latest vlog titled, “Is this the worst start to the LEC?” He reflected on problems within the team and a possible way forward.

The vlog showed the behind-the-scenes of what it feels like to be a team with potential and not get the same results as one would hope. The players throughout the vlog pointed out the disconnect between themselves and talked about the lack of cohesion and team play.

“I want to play as much as possible and get as far as possible. But if it happens that we’re not making it and we have to learn the harsh truth or reality that we’re not as good as we thought we are? Then, at least I hope that everyone learns this together and we can start working from there,” said Odoamne. He also pointed out that realistically these splits do not matter because the team only needs to get to the Summer Playoffs and fight for the LEC Championship.

Odoamne stated that it is demoralizing to win a split in the LEC to then be placed dead last in the standings and attributed the performance to not “achieving team synergy.” “There are leaders but not in the positions that we need them. Right now, it just feels like there’s no one to set the direction or come up with ideas or objectives or stuff like this,” stated Odoamne.

The pro player also pointed out that many teams could potentially face the same problem. He reasoned that, in the past, teams had nine weeks of play to sort out their issues and get back to winning ways but with the way the league is designed, teams just do not have the same leeway currently. 

Odoamne stated that he will do everything to do better next split and hoped that his teammates also put in their best efforts moving forward.

The LEC’s format underwent a revamp at the start of the year and as a result of this, Excel will only play again in the Spring Split in March.

Ahead of the next split, the team is seemingly making big changes. According to esports reporter Alejandro Gomis of blix.gg, Excel is reportedly parting ways with head coach Joey “YoungBuck” Steltenpool and assistant coach Sng “Nelson” Yi Wei.