Another participant in the League of Legends European Championship is getting closer to completing his squad for the upcoming season of competition. EXCEL today confirmed the reports sent more than two weeks ago by ESPN Esports regarding the contracting of Patrik “Patrik” Jírů and next year we will see Czech player in navy blue and orange colors.

In the 2019 season, the 19-year-old represented Origen, with whom he won the runner-up of the spring round. The same could not be achieved during the summer round, because his formation took only eighth place, and he was eliminated from the fight for Worlds after the first match of Regional Qualifier. Despite this, Patrik himself can consider this year quite successful, especially when compared to the 2018 season, when he represented H2K colors. Then he was promoted to the spring round play-offs with a tape roll, and in the summer round his team closed the table.

His new formation of his first year in the leading European competitions will certainly not be considered in the category of success. During its first split in LEC EXCEL it was only ninth, while in the summer round it closed the table with just four winnings. During the mid-season break, the British organization showed that next year it will aim much higher, acquiring the highly titled Joey “Youngbuck” Steltenpool, who has six championship titles won as a member of the G2 Esports and Fnatic training staff. In addition, according to earlier reports of ESPN Esports, EXCEL will also be joined by Tore “Tore” Eilertsen, who together with Splyce reached the quarter-finals of Worlds 2019. The remaining part of XL will be the current players – Ki “Expect” Dae-han.

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While in Europe, the vast majority of fans watch the highest level esports struggles via Twitch or YouTube, in the east it looks quite different. In China or South Korea, there are many more platforms available that broadcast leading global games. But from now on, League of Legends fans from China will be able to watch the world championship of their favorite game on one platform only.

According to information provided by Beijing News and further reported by the independent journalist Ran, the owners of one of the Chinese platforms, Bilibili, have signed a contract with Riot Games, based on which they will have exclusive rights to broadcast Worlds for the next three years. This agreement is supposed to amount to eight hundred million yuan, or over 100 million euros. In the tender, Bilibili beat other leading Chinese streaming platforms such as Douyu, Huya or Kuaishou.

For those for whom this amount seems astronomical, it is worth recalling that the number of viewers watching through Twitch or YT is at best a small fraction of the number of viewers from China. For example, last year’s edition of Worlds was watched at the peak — excluding Chinese viewers — by 1.9 million concurrent viewers, while the peak the viewership in China alone was over 200 million. It’s easy to count that it’s over a hundred times more, so looking purely mathematically, outside of China, a similar agreement would only amount to just over half a million US dollars. Of course, this is a comparison with a grain of salt, but the fact is that the Chinese audience is the vast majority of all LoL enthusiasts at the highest level. All the more now, when China’s representatives in LoL Pro League won Worlds for the second time in a row.

Bilibili is a publicly traded company on NasdaqGS (BILI) with a market capitalization of over 5.4 billion U.S. dollars.

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For some, this can be quite intriguing, given that Sun did not finish his episode in 100T particularly successfully. Although he and his companions qualified for Worlds 2018, the organization during the championships decided only on the choice of Richard “Rikara” Oha. However, having in mind a fairly solid performance during the last edition of the World Cup, we can expect that – if the next opportunity arises – 100 Thieves will not opt ​​for a substitute, provided, of course, Sun will maintain its current form and will qualify with his companions at Worlds next year.

We currently know four Thieves players. We will see William “Stunt” Chen alongside Cody Sun, while Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho will play on the other side of the map. William “Meteos” Hartman, who is returning to it, will also be a jungle jumper. The middle avenue is still unknown because although behind the scenes there is talk of Tommy joining “ry0my” Le, the organization itself is refraining from the official announcement of the full composition.

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Just a week ago, we learned that SK Telecom T1 trainer Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyun, who has been training for the past seven years, is going to say goodbye to the formation and look at offers from other organizations. The desire to change the environment was also expressed by Kim “Khan” Dong-ha, who definitively said goodbye to T1 just a few days later, leaving the band in a dull situation. Now, however, it turns out that the club has managed to find worthy successors able to fill the gaps left by its predecessors.

As for the change in the position of the main trainer, we are dealing with a real transfer bomb, because Kim “Kim” Jek-gyun was replaced by Kim “Kim” Jeong-soo, so one of the few trainers who managed to win the title of world champion . Jeong-soo is responsible for the huge success of Invictus Gaming from a year ago, which was undoubtedly the triumph at Worlds 2018. Last season, Kim was in turn associated with DAMWON Gaming, which is a BenLAM Benjamin. The trainer squeezed the best from a team composed mainly of youngsters, thanks to which a month ago we could watch their performance in the Worlds quarterfinal. Now, Kim has a much bigger challenge because he will have to lead the team who is always expected to have the most,

The top alley will be taken care of by 20-year-old Kim “Roach” Kang-hui, whom we can associate with performances in Kongdoo Monster. Last season, however, the Korean was a representative of Gen. G, with whom he failed to achieve particularly impressive results. Roach and his companions have failed to advance to the LCK play-offs twice, so they could also forget about fighting during Worlds. Despite everything, under the watchful eye of Kim and being surrounded by such experienced players as Faker, Roach has the chance to spread his wings and become a leading toplane in the world.

In addition, four youngsters were transferred to the 10-member team, which could train under the supervision of T1 trainers in the last year. Kim “Canna” Chang-dong, Choi “Ellim” El-lim, Lee “Gamayusi” Min-hyeong and Choi “Kuri” Won-yeong got engaged in the band.

Below we present the full composition of T1 for next year:

Kim ” Roach ” Kang-hui
Kim ” Canna ” Chang-dong
Moon ” Cuzz ” Woo-chan
Choi ” Ellim ” El-lim
Lee ” Faker ” Sang-hyeok
Jin-seong Teddy Park
Lee ” Gamayusi ” Min-hyeong
Lee ” Effort ” Sang-ho
Choi ” Kuri ” Won-yeong
Kim ” Kim ” Jeong-soo (coach) 

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