The transfer market of the Ligue Française de LoL (LFL) is in full swing, and teams are gradually completing their ranks to prepare for 2024, which promises to be once more, very intense. Among these reinforcements are players little known to the French audience, who have spent the majority of their careers away from the hexagon, and whom French fans will discover throughout the upcoming season. Over the next few weeks, we will present you an overview of these new faces who will showcase the extent of their talents within the current best ERL in the circuit. Today, we present to you:
Kaan “Naak Nako” Okan, Top, Vitality.Bee
Naak Nako is one of the symbols that
demonstrate that the LFL is ready to take risks to bring forth the talents of tomorrow. This very young top laner, who celebrated his
18th birthday last March, has only played in 2 competitive splits in his career, both dating back to 2022. Yet, in this short period, he has shown that he is likely someone to reckon with in the coming years in the ERL.
Naak Nako begins his journey with the Fenerbahçe Academy in January 2022, as a player who reached Challenger thanks to mastery of mechanically demanding champions such as Irelia, Akali, Yasuo, and even Lee Sin. Upon his arrival, Fenerbahçe Academy is coming off a lackluster year, oscillating between the middle and the bottom of the Turkish academy standings. Nevertheless, the entire roster, except for the top laner, is retained.
It's this same roster that eventually dominates the TCL Academy, finishing the regular season at the top of the standings with an impressive record of 14-4. Within the team, Naak Nako impresses with his extremely diverse champion pool, playing no less than 13 champions in 26 matches, from Yone to Yasuo, including Akshan, Lee Sin, and even Gragas, the latter being less expected given his SoloQ champions. The rookie significantly contributes to his team's victory in the playoffs, catching the eye of the coaching staff to the point that Fenerbahçe decides to promote him to the TCL in the summer!
Naak Nako enters the Turkish top tier at just 17 years old, alongside İlker “Ruep” Bilen and Mustafa “Carry” Selim Yılmaz, his bot lane in the academy. However, their adaptation to the higher level is painful. After 3 weeks, 6 matches, and as many defeats, Ruep is considered a bit too inexperienced for the TCL and is replaced by Jeong “BAO” Hyeon-woo. Fenerbahçe wakes up, and Naak Nako finds his footing in the league, consistently playing a varied but primarily aggressive champion pool. The team finishes the regular season with a mediocre record of 7-11 but secures a playoff spot just in time.
In the playoffs, Fenerbahçe steps up, and Naak Nako starts to consistently dominate his opponents. He defeats Dark Passage 3-1, then NASR, the first in the regular season who had suffered only one loss until then, 3-2, before reaching the final, which would secure a spot at Worlds with a victory!
However, in a heart-wrenching final that goes down to the wire, Naak Nako fails to tip the scales enough in favor of his team. The young top laner stops just short of Worlds, in his very first professional split and after starting the season with 6 consecutive defeats. Despite the bitterness of the defeat, Naak Nako's first year is impressive.
Buoyed by this first year, Naak Nako was expected in the TCL in 2023. Ultimately, the young player decided to pause his career to continue his studies. Consequently, Naak Nako did not play competitively this season, except for 7 matches at the beginning of the summer for Chasing Haze 07, a team in TCL Division 2. There, he was not particularly outstanding before leaving the team in the middle of the season.
The new top laner for Vitality.Bee thus experienced an early explosion in his career, but he had to endure a significant hiatus for a young player. Nevertheless, this break did not prevent him from being noticed by the LFL, and he joins a team that is shaping up to be one of the most interesting in the French league in 2024. Alongside Selfmade, Czajek, Jopa, and Stend, Naak Nako should find himself in the midst of a very aggressive and individually focused playstyle, a style that seems to perfectly match the qualities he demonstrated in Turkey. He will need to quickly adapt to the level of the best ERL, but if Vitality.Bee is banking on him for their 2024 season, there are reasons to believe.
