After a strong performance in spring, finishing 2nd in the regular split and 4th in playoffs, Venomcrest looked to rebuild our roster with the goal of dominating Division 2 and a clear focus on promotion. A leading part of this roster was our support, a veteran of competitive league of Legends “Touch”, their experience created a strong starting point for the roster. From there we have “Kenal” as our adc, a strong player who has performed well at the top of the LCL, PG Nats and even in the Aurora Cup in the NLC. Our Mid/Jungle duo of “Modliszka” and “Owlonsky” are two young rookies who are looking to make a big impact in a new region, both have previously played together and will have a strong synergy from that. Finally we have “MeLikePanda” in the top lane, a player who won Division 2 in spring he was a strong pickup for us and his playstyle compliments the team perfectly, being able to not only carry when needed but absorb immense amounts of pressure on the top side.
In the run up to Summer when all rosters had been revealed there was a lot of speculation about who would be at the top and bottom of the leaderboard. We are proud to say we built a strong team and it was clearly recognised to be on the top end of the table, we didn’t do any tierlists ourselves and the ones that were down we a bit of a joke in some regards. Here was some initial thoughts on all 9 teams going into it.
42 Gaming– Mid and Adc strong contends for their respective lanes, other in the team were less known to us so we were excited to see how they would perform
Anima– Seemed to have a good mix of veteran players and young rookies looking to make a strong name for themselves this split, again a team we had high hopes for
Bluewhites– They had just successfully promoted and kept many players from the main roster, with an especially strong bot lane as well, they looked like a team that could ride their momentum further into Division 2
ESP Esports – ESP had a solid spring and had made some interesting changes with possible strong players, however due to how many changes they made during the split it was hard to see if that starting roster did have potential or not
Invulnerables – Dark horse roster which did not start until week 3, had a top and an adc which all the league were ready to fear due to their individual strength, alongside some strong players alongside them.
Karolinerna – Most people underestimate this team, but similar to Bluewhites they had just promoted and were starting the summer split on a high note, with some strong players and arguably one of the strongest adcs in the league, there was a clear threat to some NLC2 team who might get cocky facing them
Lionscreed – Late joiners into the league due to Div 1 shenanigans and Fourth wall promoting, built a roster which consisted of previous NLC2 players and some new faces. With Emil arguably being the leading light for LC going into the split.
LLS – Lightside always put forward strong rosters, during spring they were our main opponents during the regular split and always gave us a run for our money, likely in our minds they would do the same in summer, only making one change and adding a new young french rookie ADC.
MRG – Went into summer putting themselves at the top of their own tier lists after a lackluster spring split, a team which had a team full of players with immense potential for personal growth, this team was one that will wind up over time and become very very dangerous when they start playing together well
The first half of the split, and in turn the first part of the double round robin, had a mix of dominating wins and close matches, we started off strong by getting three convincing wins against K5, MRG and LC. However, in these same weeks the teams on the lower end of the leaderboard were making us sweat to gain wins, with both Anima and Bluewhites putting on strong performances and Anima even nearly taking the win from us. However, we pushed on strong and didn’t drop a game in the first round robin – going 9-0. At this point we were getting hyped, but the strength of our players was their focus on the big picture, making sure not to get cocky and focus on our end goal of promotions.
By the time the 2nd round robin rolled around the team had gelled fully and were a well oiled machine, taking wins left and right. Once again Anima made us struggle but once again were able to take them down. And we managed to snowball our initial 9-0 into a record breaking 18-0 split, the first team to do so in the NLC region since its inception, and securing first place in the regular split.
This achievement belongs to not only the players on the team but their fantastic staff, with “Kaya” as their team manager and “DeadShadow” their head coach. These two kept the team ground, focused and helped them reach their true potential. That being said the entire team had loads of space to improve even further and we aim to do that heading into playoffs!
