SK Gaming have built an interesting LEC team for 2025

The LEC is soon approaching, and SK Gaming is reuniting some “old souls” in their 2025 roster. First up, Janik “JNX” Bartels and Steven “Reeker” Chen made their first steps in the LEC a few years ago, before getting relegated to the ERLs. They are now back for vengeance. The German organization will also host the reunion of the former DPlus Challengers’ botlanes with Kim “Loopy” Dong-hyeon joining the team.

Coming from the best team in ERL

Team BDSA dominated two competitions last year, but fell short and finished second in the LFL after their loss against KCB (1-3), and lost in the semis at the EMEA Masters against Beşiktaş Esports (2-3). However, it didn’t take long for their dominance to be converted into trophies, as in Summer they won both. And it felt logical, as everyone was waiting for them to reach these heights given their performances – for example, they only lost 1 game out of 18 in the French regular season. In my opinion, they were the best iteration of an ERL team ever, and it will take a while before another team can match them.

It seemed equally logical that at the end of the year, most of this roster’s players would join the LEC. At a time when every team in the league was snapping up the rookies rewarded with the LFL’s Spring and Summer MVPs – respectively: Polat “Parus” Furkan and Rudy “SkewMond” Semaan – SK made the smart choice to give BDSA’s sololaners another chance in the LEC. Even if they didn’t shine as much as the other two during the year, I feel like they were just as consistent and important to the performances of the team. They’re also not rookies, as both have already played in the league in the past and it’s common knowledge that if you don’t perform within your first years in the LEC, you’ll have a hard time getting back in.

SK decided to take the risk and welcome JNX and Reeker’s redemption arcs.

Redemption for SK’s sololaners

The toplaner is far from a stranger to the German org, whose jersey he wore from 2019 to 2022 in the LEC. Alongside this team, he has never achieved better results than 6th place. He was relegated and won the Prime League with the academy in 2023. With BDSA for his first steps in the LFL, he was just the best toplaner in the league without any discussions and I couldn’t imagine seeing him another year in the ERLs after 2024. The statistics bear this out, as he was the year’s first toplaner of the league in most of the relevant statistics such as: CS/Min, KDA, Gold/Min, DMG/Gold, Vision Score and more…

Reeker is another kind of beast. Although he recorded very good overall statistics, he was the least fanciful player in BDSA. I’d say he’s the kind of midlaner who’s very committed to the collective, and especially to his jungler. For comparison, he’s the opposite of a player like Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon, who is very selfish in the way he plays. He always finds good rotations on the map, and devotes all his early game to objectives and sidelane dives. However, during his LEC stint with BDS, I’ve had the impression that he was overwhelmed by the pressure and playing outside his standards. Midlaners abused his playstyle to gain a gigantic individual advantage over him, making him look clueless. Perhaps this time he’ll be able to overcome the pressure and find those windows that only he can see, to offer his mates an advantage without giving too much to his direct opponent in return.

Another KR botlane has landed in EMEA

The success of Oh “Noah” Hyeon-taek and Yoon “Jun” Se-jun duo in the LEC has inspired SK Gaming last year. For the Summer Split of 2024, the German org also imported a Korean botlane with Rahel and Lee “Luon” Hyun-ho. I found the duo very interesting, as they were always playing to win the lane, and most of the time they did. I would have liked to see them try again this year, since they were both coming off the LCK CL (Korean league’s second division) and had a lot more to show with the experience they’ve gained. Instead, SK sticks to a Korean botlane but replaced Luon by Loopy for the LEC Winter 2025 Split.

The interesting part of that move is that both he and Rahel already played together in the LCK CL, along with DPlus Challengers in Spring 2024. Right before the AD Carry joined SK Gaming, while the support had join Isurus in the LLA – where he finished the split in the third place. They ended their last split together as runner-up, after falling short to KT Rolster Challengers (1-3). I am looking forward to see if they can find the same success as their KR counterparts in the league.

My Final Thoughts

I don’t feel like this team can achieve great things from the get-go, I even have them as a C-tier team in my LEC Tierlist. Reeker and JNX may need time to acclimatize in a league where they have regularly failed in the past. I also don’t think Ismaïl “Isma” Boualem made enough progress last year to have a sufficient impact on his team’s performance at the start of 2025 – compared to the top junglers in the league for example.

I also have a feeling that this team will be in the middle of the rankings, and could progress further in the future if they manage to perform well in winter. Especially as I’m expecting a lot from the botlane, and I have to admit Isma has a great game sense when it comes to giving an advantage to his botside. I’ve never been this curious about following an SK roster, so I still have to give them credit for it.