Cover-Credits:
In the offseason right before the 2022 Spring Split, the League of Legends esports community and fans of the European league summed up Team Vitality's lineup as a “super team” and held really high expectations from the team. However, contrary to the beliefs, Team Vitality ended up getting placed sixth in the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), barely making the playoffs.
On 6th June, after what seemed to be a long deliberation, Team Vitality announced that its jungler Oskar "Selfmade" Boderek would no longer be a part of the starting roster, just weeks before the start of the LEC 2022 Summer Split. The team also announced that Kang “Haru” Min-seung will be its new jungler for the upcoming split. Additionally, Team Vitality has also brought in former FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) jungler Zhou “Bo” Yang-bo as a substitute.
The organization also announced its new assistant coach Đorđe “Spale” Spasić. Notably, Upcomer and Blix reported this roster change in May but the team has officially confirmed it now.
Team Vitality releases statement
Team Vitality released a rather long statement explaining the situation around Selfmade. It wrote, “Selfmade is an incredibly talented player and well-liked within the team, but League of Legends is a complex game with many different playstyles that have to come together. When two different playstyles can't be mixed well enough it is important to be able to adapt and try new options.”
Team Vitality head coach Louis-Victor "Mephisto" Legendre said that roster changes are never easy and that the team felt that the jungle role had the best potential for success if they were to try something new.
“We believe that Self-made will be able to shine as the talented player he is on another team, and we will be working closely together with Selfmade to make sure that he lands on a team where he can continue to succeed,” he added.
According to the coach and the team’s management, they felt that Haru will be able to come into the team and impact the midgame to create more avenues for victories. On Bo’s joining, Mephisto said that he will be given the time to acclimate to a new country, culture, and a different language.
Riot Games revealed that the 2022 LEC Summer Split is scheduled to start on 17th June and that the European league will kick off the split with a super week. In the opening set of games, Team Vitality will be facing MAD Lions in the first match of the split and shall also be going head to head against Misfits and Team BDS.
