The first week of the 2023 LEC Spring Split came to a close yesterday after three days of thrilling League of Legends competition, with several teams already vying for positions in the standings for the upcoming regular season. Nonetheless, two clubs have produced some outstanding numbers in a division that most teams try to avoid all season long.
Fnatic and Team Heretics have already hit a collective 50 team deaths through the first week of the season, with the former reaching 52 deaths and the latter at a league-leading 54 team deaths. It was a struggle for both rosters as well since they were the only LEC teams to finish the first week without a single win.
For the boys in orange, the year hasn’t gone nearly to plan, especially after they finished in second-to-last place during the 2023 Winter Split. The worst finish in the organization’s history prompted some early roster swaps, with rookie Óscar “Oscarinin” Jiménez and support Henk “Advienne” Reijenga taking over for the new split.
Unfortunately, new players will usually lead to growing pains for any roster, and Fnatic couldn’t find the right formula to make their new additions thrive in the first week of the Spring Split. Oscarinin, for example, stumbled into the limelight with the most deaths of any LEC player so far, according to League stats aggregate Oracle’s Elixir.
As a team, Fnatic also only had 12 total kills with a majority from jungler Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz and AD carry Martin “Rekkles” Larsson, giving them an abysmal 0.2 KDA. This roster will need time to gel together, but they don’t have too much leeway before games become much more important in their quest for a group stage berth.
Heretics, on the other hand, are coming into the 2023 Spring Split with the same roster as the winter but are still trying to find a playstyle that can carry them to a deep run this season. Three members of the team sit in the top 10 for deaths in the league, while also boasting some of the bloodiest games of the split so far at an average combined kills per minute of 0.93.
The only saving grace for Heretics fans is that they had a relatively tough schedule through the first week, facing off against KOI and the defending LEC champions, G2 Esports. Next week, they have matchups against teams like Excel Esports and Fnatic, which could be a good place to start off their winning ways when the 2023 LEC Spring Split continues on Saturday, March 18.