Excel Esports Re-Sign Patrik To Its LoL Roster

As announced on Sunday, November 14, Patrik “Patrik” Jírů has re-signed with Excel Esports. With that, the Czech ADC will extend his stay with the British esports organization for two more years.

Patrik has been confirmed as the starting ADC for Excel in the LoL European Championship (LEC) 2022 season. The news follow Excel’s less-than-convincing performance in 2021 when the team missed both playoffs.

The Czech ADC started his LoL esports career in April 2015 with eXtatus and has since played for several teams. That includes Dark Tigers, Fraternitas, eSuba, Origen ESP, Burger Flippers, Reign, and Bestikas Esports.

Patrik made his debut in the European league in 2018, when he joined H2k-Gaming, albeit he struggled to achieve much. It wasn’t until 2019, when Patrik joined Origen, that he had a breakthrough year.

With Origen, Patrik finished second in the LEC 2019 Spring and reached the LEC 2019 Spring Playoffs finals. However, the second split proved far less successful for Origen, who placed eighth in the LEC 2019 Summer and crashed out of the playoffs in fourth.

Following the disbandment and complete overhaul of Origen, Patrick was left teamless until he got picked up by Excel Esports in December 2019.

Throughout the four splits with the team, Patrik has proven himself as one of the most talented players in the league. Unfortunately, Excel struggled to achieve much, failing to finish the regular season higher than seventh.

Regardless of Excel’s lack of success over the last two years, Partick extending his contract makes a lot of sense. He has been a crucial member of the team since his arrival in 2019 and is a player around whom Excel will look to build for the future.

Admittedly, Patrik hasn’t had the best performance in 2021, finishing the season with the fourth-lowest KDA amongst LEC ADCs. However, his numbers were affected by the team’s decision to play through the mid lane.

Excel Esports has gained an unenviable tag as a team that consistently misses out on the playoffs. Since Excel’s debut in the LEC in 2019, the team has not finished the regular season higher than seventh.

That includes back-to-back seventh-place finishes in the 2020 season, and an eighth and seventh-eighth place finish in 2021. Regardless, the British esports organization has made heavy investments into its LoL esports division over the years, building a roster that looks set to compete for a postseason berth in 2022.

The first step toward that was retaining Patrik as the team’s starting ADC. Now Excel needs to start building a solid team around him – a process already started in 2021.

Midway through the 2021 season, Excel added two academy players in jungler Mark “Markoon” van Woensel and support Henk “Advienne” Reijenga, who are expected to remain with the team in 2022.

Although not confirmed yet, Excel are expected to keep mid laner Erlend “nukeduck” Våtevik Holm for one more year. With that, the only question mark remains Excel’s top lane, where the team currently fields Felix “Kryze” Hellström.

There have been no rumors or announcements about Kryze’s future. That leaves the doors wide open for a possibility that Excel might look to freshen up their top side.

However, since the offseason has only just officially begun, we can expect Excel to unveil the rest of its roster in the coming weeks. The only two confirmed names as of now are Patrik as ADC and Joey “YoungBuck” Steltenpool as head coach.

YoungBuck aka. “The six-star general” has re-signed with Excel on Friday, November 12, and is set to lead Excel in the team’s fifth attempt at a playoffs berth in the 2022 season.