On June 28, Excel Esports announced that they would be subbing in Henk “Advienne” Reijenga and Markn “Markoon” van Woensel ahead of Week 4 of the LEC. The players will be replacing Petr “denyk” Haramach and Daniel “Dan” Hockley in support and jungle, respectively.
Announcement regarding our #LEC roster heading into week 4.@MarkoonLoL & @Advienne1 will join the LEC team ahead of this week's matches with Dan & Denyk moving to the BTXL roster.#ThePowerOfBetter #XLWIN pic.twitter.com/sMWzDhym1i
— EXCEL (@EXCEL) June 28, 2021
Why did Excel sub in Advienne and Markoon?
The reason for the change, according to coach Joey “Youngbuck” Steltenpool, was to improve Excel’s roster and have the best five players at all times. He also added that when they first picked up Markoon and Avienne, “it wasn’t a matter of if they would play LEC, but when.”
Tryouts were held shortly after the spring split of the LEC and Excel decided to pick up Denyk. However, shortly after those tryouts, the BT Excel team had a great run at EU Masters; placing second overall. Another reason for the change was poor scrim results leading up to the summer split. This affected team chemistry and synergy. Those scrim results showed that the BT Excel team members were up to par with the LEC roster. So, it was a matter of finding the combination of players that would fit best for the organization. These changes come after a three game loss streak in the LEC.
Youngbuck added that the decision was made only after Adrienne and Markoon had declared that they felt ready and confident to play in the LEC. He also placed emphasis on the fact that the team’s poor results, so far, are a shared responsibility of the team; blame is not to be placed on Dan and denyk alone. The team will continue to monitor the situation through internal scrims and they may make more changes with time.
Despite this change, the Twitter post also clarified that Markoon and Advienne will continue to play in this week’s Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC). Dan and denyk will take over the following week.
