BT Excel will sign midlaner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo, and keep jungler Daniel “Dan” Hockley, to fill out their team for the 2022 Northern League of Legends Championship season, according to sources close to Upcomer. James “Torok” Thomsen will also be the head coach, according to sources.
Dan will compete with Excel’s Academy team for one more year. The jungler is a veteran of the European scene playing for different European Regional League teams — usually academy teams like Fnatic Rising. In 2019, he entered as a substitute for the Fnatic League of Legends European Championship team, but it was not until the 2021 season that the player competed as a starter in the league with Excel. During the following summer split, Dan was benched by Mark “Markoon” van Woensel, Excel’s current LEC jungler.
EMENES is the former midlaner of Galakticos. The South Korean player made his debut with Gen.G Academy and was a trainee for Kingzone DragonX in 2019. In his last stint with Galakticos, they finished third in the summer split and third-fourth in the summer playoffs, losing 0-3 to NASR Esports. Now, EMENES looks to bring his talents over to the NLC to improve a BT Excel team that was able to develop talents such as Markoon and Henk “Advienne” Reijenga. Those two now look to enter the LEC next year.
The 20-year-old Torok started coaching in 2018. He has assisted teams such as WL Gaming or Team Singularity. He was already present in the NLC, coaching several different teams and will now coach BT Excel. During his time with Team Singularity, the team was able to make the NLC spring and summer playoffs in 2021. Team Singularity ended fourth and third, respectively. In summer, they lost to Fnatic Rising, a team which placed second in European Masters.
