Misfits 2022 LEC Team Breakdown | One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
The line-up Misfits Gaming will field in 2022 is quite a peculiar one: it’s far from bad, but it probably won’t leave much of a mark once all is said and done. Expectations were high after their impressive Top 5 finish last split but, based on their recent roster changes, it’s fair to say that they’ve either a) sidegraded (at best) or b) flat-out regressed in terms of potential.
Not exactly what we wanted to see from the boys in black and red, but we’d be lying if we said we didn’t expect this — it was only a matter of time before Iván “Razork” Martín received an offer too good to refuse. And it eventually came from one of the most revered organizations in the world of competitive League: the former “kings of Europe” Fnatic.
This talented Spaniard always stood out. At first, he was a bit too rough around the edges, but his potential was clear as day. Then, as time went on, he managed to curtail his biggest flaws while also retaining that aggressiveness that gave him an edge over the vast majority of his contemporaries. So, in a way, he had too much potential and had outgrown Misfits; a change of scenery was not only warranted but necessary for him to further grow and develop. Simply put: he wasn’t going to challenge for the LEC throne for as long as he wore a Misfits jersey, and he probably knew as much, too.
The fact that Misfits decided to promote Lucjan “Shlatan” Ahmad to the starting line-up should come as no surprise: he’s a worthy successor to Razork and an LFL champion, no less. Whether he’ll be able to deliver on the biggest stage in Europe still remains to be seen, but he’s done more than enough to warrant our benefit of the doubt (although the same cannot be fair for Misfits who don’t have the best track record when it comes to player management/development).
If this talented Pole can fill in the void, so to speak, Misfits might stand a chance. If not, they’ll retrogress in more ways than one.
Misfits Gaming | 2022 Starting Line-Up
The following five players will compete under the Misfits Gaming banner for the 2022 competitive season:
Top Lane: Shin “HiRit” Tae-min
Jungle: Lucjan “Shlatan” Ahmad [formerly of Misfits Premier]
Mid Lane: Vincent “Vetheo” Berrié
AD Carry: Matúš “Neon” Jakubčík [formerly of Schalke 04]
Support: Oskar “Vander” Bogdan
This is a respectable line-up, there’s no doubt about it, but it’s also flawed and somewhat disjointed. The news of Kasper “Kobbe” Kobberup and Misfits parting ways took us all by surprise — it was a very solid pairing, although we’d be remiss if we didn’t say that Kobbe wasn’t as crisp or dominant as in the past.
Far from it, in fact.
Still, he’s a known quantity and is definitely capable of clutching things out in the late game. We understand that Misfits wanted a better-performing marksman, but it’s not like they’ve upgraded much (if at all) by bringing in Neon — doubly so after this whole debacle. Neon definitely had a few good moments throughout his stint with Schalke 04, but they were too few and far between to actually warrant any kind of hype.
Fortunately for Misfits, they were able to retain HiRit, Vetheo, and the legend himself Vander. This is an incredibly solid three-man core, and they’ll no doubt give Misfits a puncher’s chance come 2022. HiRit and Vetheo, in particular, performed way above expectations and if they can keep growing there’s no doubt in our mind that they’ll be able to lead their team to victory and, potentially, a spot in the playoffs.
As far as imports go, HiRit is definitely one of the better ones. He’s been pretty darn good throughout his Misfits tenure, and the most important thing is that he still has room to grow and develop. With that being said, we’ll see how well he’ll do now that Razork is no longer with the team. Much of the same can be said for Vetheo who also happened to have wrecked house last split. He was first in KDA (5.3), first in Kill Participation (a whopping 71.8%), first in Kill Share (32%), second-best in Death Share (16.7%), and had some very respectable laning stats as well.
But stats don’t tell you the most important thing about Vetheo: his ability to make the game-winning play. He has shown immense promise throughout the year and we can’t wait to see him back in action! The fact that he traded blows with the likes of Rasmus “Caps” Winther and Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer in his very first year in the LEC is a sign of greatness and it warrants a ton of praise and commendation.
Misfits have two very capable solo laners, and if Shlatan can play around them in the same way as Razork did, this line-up might be able to inflict some damage to the status quo. And even though they’ll face an uphill battle, it’s still important to highlight that there is a fair bit of potential — we’re just not sure they’ll be able to harness it. Razork was one of their most important catalysts and not having his early game impact will take some getting used to.
What’s Realistic?
That’s still hard to predict at this point in time. Neon is solid but far from great, and we still haven’t seen Shlatan play on the LEC stage. He has a metric ton of potential, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be able to realize it as fast as, say, Javier “Elyoya” Prades did.
There are never any guarantees, but if we had to hazard a guess, we’d say that they’ll be better than Team BDS, SK Gaming, EXCEL Esports, Astralis, and perhaps even Rogue. Still, this is just an early prediction and there are many ways in which things could go awry.
In any case, we’ll find out soon enough as the LEC returns to action on January 14!
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