Week six of the LEC has been another rough one for Excel. Special told us last week that they must go 2-0 on the weekend or they have no chance in making it to the playoffs. However, Excel fell to Rogue in their first game, and despite earning themselves a healthy gold lead against G2, they weren't able to take down the EU super villains.
So what now for the plucky British underdogs? In the latest of our weekly Excel at the LEC columns, star jungler Marc 'Caedrel' Lamont reveals what it's like to be sitting at the bottom of the standings, what Excel are playing for now and whether we'll be seeing anymore of his wacky jungle picks.
It’s been quite tough in the Excel camps. We’re very emotional right now, it isn’t easy when you lose especially when you lose the games that you should have won.
We have been consistent with the leads we build in our early game, and we always manage to get one or two kills by the 15-minute mark but then we turn into headless chickens.
In the G2 game this week, after I finished my third camp, I realised that my bot lane just took a crazy trade and I had an inkling that Jankos was going to dive them. We anticipated it and immediately punished them for it. I then stole drake and the game was set up in our favour. Both of our team comps were team-fighting comps which meant that if one side gets ahead, it is always going to be so difficult for the other to catch up. That happened when we lost a fight top side, and we then lost Baron after I got caught out and we were fucked from there on.
It’s quite sad really. Every game we lose we feel like we do everything right up to a certain point. We can’t seem to transition well and there is no real direction in the team. In the first couple of weeks, it felt like we were on the right track but now we’ve hit a wall, we’re not improving and the other teams are. When it comes to team fights and split pushing we’re starting to get left behind.
At this point we are just accepting that we’re not going to make playoffs. We’re most likely going to finish bottom four, which is what was expected anyway for a brand new organisation with rookies, but it is still disappointing. Right now, everyone at Excel are just looking at the summer and taking the next couple of weeks as a learning curve.
Rock Bottom
We’re struggling with synergy and general team issues, too. Some of it is hard to talk about because it’s personal between the players. There are a lot of disagreements between players, and sometimes it just doesn’t feel like we’re on the same page. For example, me and Expect would be playing one type of game whereas mid or bot lane would be in a different mindset.
The game against Rogue that went wrong was all my fault though. I saw that Expect took a really good trade top side so I took the opportunity to get him ahead but by doing that, we lost a lot bot side for it which was not worth what I did in the end. It was a risky move by me, I took a gamble and it didn’t pay off and it fucking sucks when that happens.
It’s hard when a team is losing, because everyone gets super frustrated, but right now everyone is actually quite calm. We have been communicating with each other and ironing things out, because we realised we’re not going to make playoffs so being negative isn’t going to change anything. We’re trying to all stay positive and grind out the rest of the season.
That Urgot pick
Everyone seemed so surprised when we made that Urgot jungle pick against Rogue. We played it a lot in scrims and I think it’s really good. We had a really high win rate with it because the thing with Urgot is, you just don’t lose the mid or top 2v2. You get a champion like Le Blanc or Syndra, land the stung or chain and the Urgot can just fly out of the bush to kill them. Sadly, it’s quite so early game and it takes a bit of time in the jungle so when Rogue picked the Olaf it kind of sucked for us. We had a Draven that game so we probably should have played bot side more, which you know, was the source of some difference in opinion.
But having said that, I really think you’re going to see some Urgot jungle picks in other regions. I’ve been playing it since before Christmas and it was really successful. I held off on it at first because I never really saw anyone else playing it so it can’t be that broken, but when I started playing it more and more, despite it being nerfed again this patch, I still think it’s good. Maybe I’ll play it again who knows?
I guess we’ve got nothing to lose now at this point so we can be like, fuck it and pull out all the guns. But all jokes aside, there are a few weird picks and comps going on behind the scenes – although I don’t think any of them are ready to translate to stage play just yet. We’re not really trying to tunnel vision on niche picks, we’re just trying to tunnel vision on being good which is becoming the hardest step right now.
Potential roster change
There will probably be some roster changes from now until the end of the split, which is unfortunately out of my hands. I’ll just play how I always play, there’s only three weeks left and we’re not going to make playoffs anyway. So, for example, in week nine, if they sub me out for Taxer I wouldn’t really be that surprised. Giving him a weekend would be really nice for him – it’s not like me playing would make a difference in the standings or anything so that scenario wouldn’t really surprise me very much.
Stats do lie
It’s really sweet actually, my mum keeps linking me LEC stats where I’m being ranked one of the top junglers in various areas of the game. She’d say to me: "You’re doing so well, keep your head up!", and I’m like ‘awww’. She doesn’t understand the game, but she sees the stats and tells me I must be doing so well. I’m like, ‘thanks mum!’
She hasn’t had a chance to come and watch me live in Berlin so she’ll probably come the next split. She always watches me online even though she really has no idea what’s going on. She’d always text me after games and tell me I played really well even though I didn’t.
It’s actually quite surprising when I look at the stats to be honest. People say stats don’t lie but some stats are bit of fake news to me. I don’t really understand how I am performing to that standard but I guess it gives me some comfort knowing that I am doing certain things right but we’re not doing that as a team yet and I can’t really be happy until that happens.
What we’re playing for now
Yes, we’re out of playoffs contention but it doesn’t mean I’m not going try my hardest to win and to prove that I am a top tier jungler. Besides, it’s always fun to block other teams from playoffs. It’d be hilarious if a team, let’s say Misfits, needed one more win to make playoffs and we just knock them out of it.
We won’t be trolling or anything but it’d just be super fun to be the team that stops people and that’s going to give me the motivation to try and win harder.