GiantX: A New Era in the LEC - The Fusion of Giants Gaming and Excel Esports

Continuing our countdown to the start of the 2024 LEC Winter split, in this article, we are going to take a look at one of the most interesting stories of the offseason, the merger of Spanish organization Giants Gaming and British organization Excel Esports.

Both Excel and Giants have a rich history in League of Legends, Excel has been in the LEC since its formation in 2019 when the EU LCS was franchised. Meanwhile, Giants applied for one of these franchising slots while they were competing in the 2018 EU LCS, however, they were not accepted. Referenced by this tweet from the official Giants Gaming Twitter/X on October 5th, 2018.

Before the LEC, Excel spent 4 years competing in the various UK precursors to the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC), in a time when the European Regional Leagues (ERLs) were a lot more grassroots than the more streamlined ERL system that has become more established in more recent seasons. However, Excel hasn’t competed in the ERL system since academy team JD|XL disbanded at the end of 2022. Since joining the LEC in 2019, Excel hasn’t been close to challenging for a title until their surprise 2nd place finish in the 2023 LEC Summer playoffs, falling 3-0 to G2 Esports.

Giants Gaming on the other hand has been one of the most popular Esports organisations in Spain for over a decade, formed back in 2008, they compete in many titles. Giants made their entry into League of Legends in 2013. More well known however, is their entry into the 2015 EU LCS Spring Split after qualifying through the EUW 5v5 Ladder with an all Spanish roster that became instantly recognisable due to personalities such as Top Laner Jorge "Werlyb" Casanovas Moreno-Torres, who is now the Manager of Team Heretics.

After a couple of seasons of middling results and not being accepted into the 2019 franchising of the then EU LCS, Giants focused solely on the LVP Superliga (LVP SL), Spain’s ERL, and despite winning 3 SL titles from 2019 to 2021, in more recent years, results haven’t been as strong, the last time they were close to a title was the 2022 LVP Summer playoffs, where they got crushed by a rampant Team Heretics in two series with a combined game score of 1-6, culminating with their 3-1 loss in the finals.

On December 14th on the social media site formerly known as Twitter, GiantX was unveiled to the world with this tweet and a subsequent Twitch livestream showcasing the merger as well as their LEC and Valorant (VCT) rosters, a livestream that Sheep Esports co-streamed live from the event, accompanied with an article on SheepEsports.com with more details. Alongside their LEC and VCT teams, GiantX will compete in the LVP SL as a continuation of the Giants Gaming team, becoming GiantX Academy in the same vein as Heretics when they joined the LEC in 2023.

Onto the roster, GiantX has made 2 changes from the Excel roster that previously competed in the LEC in 2023.

The outgoing players are Mid laner Felix "Abbedagge" Braun and Support Dino "LIMIT" Tot. The latter of which is notable as Limit’s joining was a major catalyst for Excel’s summer resurgence after a very weak winter and spring, where they failed to reach the group stage in either split.

Incoming is 19-year-old Czech rookie Mid Laner Adam "Jackies'' Jeřábek who as reported by Sheep Esports was a surprising pick-up considering he hasn’t played in any major ERLs, coming from Czech Hitpoint Masters team Entropiq where he and his team were domestically dominant, winning both spring and summer splits, although failing to get out of either of the EMEA Masters Play-ins stages. Jackies’ selection has been backed up by the team’s coaches Kaas and Hidon saying he was at the top of their list after doing their post-season roster building during their interview with Sheep Esports’ Brieuc “LEC Wooloo'' Seeger during the GiantX unveil live stream.

In the Support role, GiantX has gone big, bringing in Korean Lee "IgNar'' Dong-geun back to Europe from the North American LCS team NRG, coming off a very successful year where NRG won the LCS Summer Split and was the only western team that got out of the 2023 Worlds Swiss Stage. Ignar previously has had 2 spells in Europe, notably with Misfits in 2017 where they took SKT (Now T1) to 5 games at the 2017 World Championship Quarterfinals. IgNar brings with him tons of experience, having played in many regions from Europe, North America and Korea at the top level. Having spent significant time competing in the west IgNar understands English to a good level and will be a great help for Jungler Peach as having a compatriot that can help with communication and team cohesion will undoubtedly be very useful.

Staying with the roster are Top Laner Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu, Jungler Lee "Peach" Min-gyu and ADC Patrik "Patrik" Jírů. Odoamne and Patrik are long-time veterans of the LEC and even played at the top level before the LEC was established, they are seen by the fans and people in the scene as pillars of the European League of Legends scene and carry a wealth of experience, notably Odoamne’s 2022 LEC Summer victory with Rogue.

Peach on the other hand had a decent showing in 2023 since joining the LEC from Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition of the Prime League. He was notable for his strong tank play, mostly on Maokai and Sejuani, and for acting as a backbone for notably Patrik to carry through Bot Lane.

This GiantX roster on paper is an upgrade on last year’s Excel roster, even with the addition of unknown rookie commodity Jackies, whose reception by fans has been surprisingly positive from fans although nervousness remains on how he will fare against players like Caps, Perkz and Larssen. IgNar on the other hand is seen by most as a major upgrade over LIMIT, providing more experience and someone Peach should be able to work with even better than in 2023.