LEC 2024 Rookies: Daglas, diamond in the rough

For years, Poland has been a prominent nation in European League of Legends, especially renowned for producing exceptional junglers. Names like Mateusz “Kikis” Szkudlarek, Kacper “Inspired” Sloma, Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek, and notably the greatest European jungler, Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski, have raised their nation's flag high in the professional arena of the Old Continent. However, in recent years, the renewal of Polish presence in the LEC has been challenging.

Kikis hasn’t been part of the European elite since 2019, Selfmade has been missing for nearly two years following his tumultuous time with Team Vitality, and Inspired has gone to the LCS in North America. Only Jankos, the eternal, continues to dominate the European jungle. Poland hoped for a revival in 2022, but the arrivals of Lucjan “Shlatan” Ahmad and Jakub “Cinkrof” Rokicki weren’t impactful, leading to the LEC 2023 season starting with only two Polish players, the lowest in history.

A new Polish generation is emerging, potentially led by a player with striking precocity, who has rapidly ascended the ranks and gained enough trust to start in the LEC at just 18 years old. In this second episode of the LEC 2024 rookies, we introduce Kacper “Daglas” Dagiel, the new jungler for Team Vitality.

Daglas's story is of an extremely precocious player achieving feats few can at his age. His journey with MOBAs started very young, even before many current professional players, and not with League of Legends. We have to go back to 2009, before the release of Riot Games’ title, to discover the young Kacper playing MOBAs with DOTA 1 6.59AI. At that time, Daglas was only 4 years old and unaware of the role MOBAs would play in his life.

It was his brother who steered him towards the game that would define his career. His older brother had been playing League of Legends since its release and occasionally let Daglas play a game or two, until Daglas created his own account in 2013, as he told L'Equipe last March.

At that time, Daglas knew nothing about Esports in League of Legends. It wasn’t until 2019, with G2 Esports’ impressive run to the Worlds final, that he discovered professional competition. This revelation motivated him, with Jankos becoming an instant role model.

Fast forward to 2021. Daglas celebrated his fifteenth birthday, too young for competitive play but joining several Polish teams as a substitute, getting a taste of the professional scene without playing official matches. Yet, the jungler was already making a name for himself in Poland.

A few months earlier, Riot Games released a new jungler, Viego, a perfect fit for the young Pole's style. Daglas instantly fell in love with the champion, using his power to climb two different accounts to Challenger. He boasted astonishing statistics, playing over 300 matches with Viego, achieving a win rate of over 70%.

This led him to the top 15 in European SoloQ, at the same time as the world's best teams were in Europe for Worlds 2021. At 15, Daglas spent days observing some of the world's top players, like Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu, the reigning world champion and one of his major inspirations.

Daglas also ended 2021 by becoming the national champion of the Red Bull SoloQ, the 1v1 tournament organized by Red Bull. At 15, he had not yet competed on stage but has already been making waves.

Armed with his experience from the previous year, and upon turning 16, Daglas started looking for a team. He caught the eye of Anorthosis Famagusta, one of the top clubs in the GLL, the Greek league. The Cypriot organization had a successful year, winning two titles in Greece and making a mark at the European Masters, but they were starting from scratch in 2022.

Daglas played his first season surrounded by veterans, all at least six years older and with far more professional experience. However, Anorthosis quickly recognized the young Pole's offensive potential, making him the cornerstone of their gameplay. Daglas was left free to express his aggression and rapidly became the league's top jungler. On champions like Diana, Hecarim, and of course, Viego, he terrorized opponents, strongly supported by his teammates. The Pole finished his debut split contributing 23.5% of his team's total damage, an impressive feat for a jungler, indicating his critical role.

However, the season didn’t end as expected, with Anorthosis collapsing in the playoffs, losing 3-0 to a team they had beaten twice during the season. Nonetheless, Anorthosis didn’t lose faith and decided to completely rebuild their team, aware that their new Polish recruit was a gem deserving the best environment.

ANO brought back three players from their glorious previous year. The bot lane of Valmir “Goldento4st” Fejzullahu and Besmir “iLevi” Jakupi, and especially the Greek legend Giannis “Dom1nant” Vorgazlis, who left the jungle for the mid lane to better support Daglas. Daglas continued his momentum in a Summer where Anorthosis reached another level.

After a stellar record of 10 wins and 4 losses placing them second in the GLL, ANO dominated the playoffs, defeating We Love Gaming 3-1, then Team Phantasma 3-0, even winning the final game after trailing by 10,000 gold and half as many kills as their opponents. This team was too strong for the GLL, and at only 16 years old, Daglas celebrated his first title in the professional circuit. This title wasn’t the only highlight of an impressive season that also secured a spot in the European Masters for Daglas and his team!

In the group stage of the EUM, facing JDXL, one of the Play-In favorites, Anorthosis set their sights on second place. The Cypriots did much better than that. With a fiery Daglas, completely unchained, ANO steamrolled their group, suffering only one defeat to JDXL, whom they beat in 28 minutes the previous day. In that victory, Daglas’s Bel’Veth shone, finishing the match with the most kills and more than twice the CS of his opponent. A sheer display of dominance, proving that Daglas was ready for the next level.

And if that wasn’t proof enough, Daglas would soon add more. In the EUM group stage, placed in what was considered the group of death, ANO struggled but still managed a win against AGO Rogue, again thanks to the excellent work of their Polish jungler. Insufficient for Anorthosis to advance further in the competition, but enough to polish off a first competitive season in which Daglas had already made a mark.

Naturally, such a standout first year would attract the eyes of many recruiters in the ERL. Daglas quickly became one of the most watched prospects of the 2023 mercato, but it was one of Europe's biggest structures that quickly snapped him up: Vitality. Placed in an ambitious team with some notable names around him, such as Nihat “Innaxe” Aliev or Jakub “Jactroll” Skurzyński, Daglas also became the youngest player to compete in the LFL at just 17 years old!

At the hive, Daglas continued to progress rapidly. While Vitality.bee didn't have the best results in the league, the Polish jungler evolved, learning versatility. From a player almost exclusively focused on carry champions, Daglas expanded his range, shining also on support-focused champions, which he had rarely played in Greece.

But despite some changes in his playstyle, some habits remained the same, such as Daglas's impressive ability to always be ahead of his opponent in resources, even on champions not predisposed to it. In 2023, Daglas spent more than 80% of his matches with a resource advantage over his opponent at 15 minutes, even against some of Europe's most talented junglers!

However, 2023 wasn't the honeymoon he experienced with Anorthosis. Vitality.bee faced several significant difficulties, especially chronic inconsistency, which often put the team in a bad position during endgame. Thus, they often lost matches they had started well, like their defeat against BDS Academy, despite VITB accumulating more than 6,000 golds ahead in 15 minutes. Perhaps a repercussion of youth for Daglas, who sometimes struggled to convert the advantages he built throughout the match.

Despite a strong start, VITB finished their Spring with 7 losses in 10 matches, losing their playoff spot in the last week, a major disappointment given the team's start to the season. Eventually, Vitality made changes, and Innaxe was replaced by Matúš "Neon" Jakubčík, recently demoted from the LEC.

With Neon, and later Daniel “Scarface” Aitbelkacem joining the team mid-Summer, VITB showed a better face than in Spring, stringing together 6 wins in 8 matches, reaching the playoffs thanks to a rejuvenated and particularly impactful Daglas on his carry champions, even though his Viego was less effective than usual.

But the real highlight of Daglas's season was an unexpected opportunity: as Team Vitality's LEC team faced a crisis due to poor results, Zhou “Bo” Yang-Bo was benched. Daglas was called up to play in the final week of Vitality's LEC Summer, with the goal of qualifying a struggling team for the group stage.

Daglas thus became the very first LEC player born in 2005 and the youngest player to compete in an LEC match at 17 years and 251 days old. Unfortunately, the task was too great for the rookie, and Vitality lost their last three matches. However, Daglas was far from outclassed, sometimes even outperforming more experienced opponents like Théo “Sheo” Borile or Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong.

Returning to the LFL after this enriching experience, Daglas started the playoffs strongly by decisively beating Solary 3-0. In a support-oriented style he had honed all year, he effectively countered the plans of his Polish compatriot, Lucjan “Shlatan” Ahmad, the previous year's LEC rookie.

However, against GO, the momentum of Vitality.bee wasn't enough, and despite a hard-fought battle that lasted five matches, the team ultimately fell. This match concluded a colorful year for the young Pole, who experienced everything from failure and success to adaptation and an unexpected LEC opportunity – one that would prove to be prophetic.

Despite Vitality.bee's varied results, Daglas's talent and progress did not go unnoticed. Team Vitality parted ways with Bo and decided to trust their own development program by promoting Daglas as their main jungler. At just 18, he began his tenure in one of the LEC's oldest organizations as a starter for the 2024 season.

This was a bold move for many fans, who couldn't help but recall Vitality's past failures in nurturing young talent, such as Lucas “SAKEN” Fayard, Duncan “Skeanz” Marquet, or Enzo “SLT” Gonzalez. However, overlooking these missteps would ignore the person at the helm of Vitality's LEC project in 2024: James “Mac” MacCormack. Arguably the most capable of integrating and developing rookies in European elite, as proven during his years at Splyce and MAD Lions. Mac recreated a familiar environment at Vitality, bringing in part of his former staff, including assistant coach Patrick “Pad” Suckow-Breum, and the last bot lane he worked with: the duo Matyáš "Carzzy" Orság and Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov, European champions in the previous spring.

This experienced setup was further enhanced by the addition of an ex-MVP of the LEC, Vincent “Vetheo” Berrié, and the major standout of Vitality in 2023: Kyeong “Photon” Gyu-tae, a young Korean who had shined in the previous year despite his team's struggles. This provided the perfect environment for the fiery Daglas, who aims to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious models and continue the dynasty of great Polish junglers.