Vitality have confirmed a major shakeup to their League of Legends team, keeping only Luka ‘Perkz’ Perković and Zhou ‘Bo’ Yangbo from their 2022 LEC roster.
On Twitter, Vitality announced the departures of top laner Barney ‘Alphari’ Morris, jungler Kang ‘Haru’ Min-seung, AD Carry Matyáš ‘Carzzy’ Orság, and support Labros ‘Labrov’ Papoutsakis as they prepare for an overhaul of their LEC roster after a disappointing year.
The French organization signed Perkz, Alphari, and Carzzy at the end of 2021 to create what many believed to be a European superteam, but the squad failed to live up to that billing. Vitality finished the Spring Split in fifth place and did not even make the playoffs in the Summer after a two-way tie with EXCEL for sixth place.
Two of the four players that Vitality have released are expected to remain in the LEC in 2023. Carzzy has been linked with a return to MAD Lions, the organization he represented between 2019 and 2021, while Labrov has been tipped to join Team BDS.
Alphari announced on November 11 that he will take a break from competition, admitting that his motivation to play the game had taken a hit after he had once again failed to achieve his long-awaited goal of winning a split. “Either I’ll come back with a new perspective and motivation, still desiring to win, or I’ll find that not playing is more suitable – and nothing lost,” he wrote.
Who will Vitality sign for LEC 2023?
According to recent reports, Vitality have set their sights on Korean top laner Kyeong ‘Photon’ Gyu-tae, who plays for T1 Challengers.
Former Misfits Gaming AD Carry Matúš ‘Neon’ Jakubčík and ex-MAD Lions support Norman ‘Kaiser’ Kaiser are expected to man the bot lane.
Chinese jungler Bo is expected to remain with the team for 2023. The former FunPlus Phoenix player, who made headlines in August for tearing up European solo queue, has reportedly been brushing up on his English in order to be a viable option for the new season after being consigned to a substitute role in 2022.
Keep up to date with all the transfer activity in LCS and LEC with our free agency live tracker.