The French team Vitality aimed to become the new super-team in European League of Legends in 2022. For allegedly several million euros, they brought back two European stars from the USA: Perkz and Alphari. In a video, they announced plans to destroy every team in the LEC. However, they lost the first 3 matches in the Spring Season of LoL 2022.
Who did they spend so much money on?
Team Vitality has reacquired 2 of the biggest European stars currently playing LoL in the USA:
- The Croatian Luka “Perkz” Perkovic was a midlaner for Cloud 9, after establishing a reputation as an absolute leadership player and winner during 6 years in Europe with G2.
- The Englishman Barney “Alphari” Morris played in the USA for Team Liquid.
These two were supposed to form the backbone of Team Vitality in 2022.
G2 CEO Ocelote tweeted that the French team had to pay 2.5 million euros for Perkz and 1.5 million euros for Alphari. Although the head of Team Vitality denied these claims, it can be assumed that it cost a lot to lure the stars away from the USA.
After all, it is said that Perkz cost 5 million US dollars when moving to the USA. The CEO of Cloud 9 stated that they hardly lost any money on the resale (via dexerto).
Additionally, the team acquired ADC Carzzy from the current champions MAD Lions. Jungler Selfmade, who has been on the team since May 2021, is also regarded as one of the best junglers in Europe.
Nominating Team Vitality is undoubtedly one of the best teams that have ever played in the LEC.
Apparently, they could only sign these star players because Perkz decided to create “a new super-team” in Europe that would compete for the world championship. Moreover, Team Vitality opened the money bags, hoping to become the dominant esports team in Europe in 2022 with a budget offensive.
“The new roster of Team Vitality destroys all LEC teams”
That was the announcement: On December 16, a YouTube video from Team Vitality titled “The new roster of Team Vitality destroys all LEC teams” was released.
In the video, you could see Perkz, Alphari, Selfmade, Carzzy, and support player Labrov smashing a room filled with logos of the LEC teams with baseball bats, crowbars, and protective gear.
The message in the video was clear: the roster would destroy everything. Anything less than the championship would be a disappointment for this roster in 2022.
This is how it really went: Not well at all. Team Vitality lost the first 3 games of the LEC and has slipped to the last place in the league.
- They lost to the Mad Lions on Friday
- On Saturday, they suffered a defeat against Fnatic
- On Sunday, they lost to Excel Esports – not exactly a top team in the LEC
LoL: “Super-Team” more like “super-washed”, say observers
What is the cause? This is currently being hotly discussed on reddit. It is of course known that it is still early in the season, but the stars are having to hear a lot right now.
- Instead of “Super-Team”, one user on reddit says the team is “Super Washed”. With “Washed Up” refers to players who are no longer performing, who are past their peak career: something like “washed up stars.”
- In the match against Fnatic, every player on Team Vitality performed worse than their counterpart – except for jungler Selfmade. Especially the new top laner from Fnatic, Wunder, was significantly stronger than Alphari, who is now considered “overrated”, according to the sentiment on reddit.
- One user sarcastically remarks: “Man, these import players from North America are really struggling in Europe.”
In the coming weeks, Team Vitality needs to come up with something, as the so-called super-team didn’t exhibit its potential in the first weekend of the LEC.
How a super-team runs significantly better is demonstrated in Korea:
