The failure of the Vitality LEC superteam has been one of the most controversial topics in European League this split. Christian ‘IWDominate’ Rivera gave his take on the issue on the latest episode of Dexerto’s ‘The Jungle’.
The idea of a superteam has always been a hot-button topic in competitive League of Legends. Many organizations have tried to create their own version of a superteam – bringing together the best players money can buy in the hopes of constructing a dream team, an international powerhouse who’ll bring home a World Championship cup for their region.
If only it were that simple.
Teams who have branded themselves as ‘superteams’ have never been able to find the success that their name promises. Team Vitality are just the latest casualty in a long line of failed experiments, eliminated in an unceremonious 3-0 sweep by G2 Esports in the LEC Spring playoffs.
On this week’s episode of The Jungle, IWDominate gave his thoughts on the matter alongside co-hosts Daniel ‘DGon’ Gonzales and Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykkles.
“The weirdest series I’ve ever watched”
The Jungle didn’t hold back when it came to criticizing Vitality’s performance against G2, with IWDominate calling the 3-0 “the weirdest series I’ve ever watched, compared to expectations.”
Coming into the matchup, opinions were divided on which team looked like the favorites. While G2 had performed significantly better in the regular season, there were still those who trusted the wealth of experience on Vitality’s side from players like mid laner Luka ‘Perkz’ Perković and top laner Barney ‘Alphari’ Morris.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
But that experience proved ineffectual, with Vitality looking completely lost on the map throughout all three of their games. Alphari, supposedly one of the League’s best top laners, fell flat in his matchup against Sergen ‘Broken Blade’ Çelik.
IWDominate explainined how, coming into the series, Alphari was considered “one of the only top laners who could actually match BrokenBlade” in the laning phase. His job was to neutralize one of G2’s only win conditions, which made it all the more disappointing when he showcased one of his poorest laning phases of the split.
Vitality are “broken beyond repair”
With eyes on the summer split after their elimination from the Spring playoffs, it’s not looking good for Vitality. MonteCristo described the team as “broken beyond repair”, a damning indictment of one of the most high-profile failures of European League.
“Every other game has been some level of errors that are absolutely indefensible from a team with this level of experience,” explained MonteCristo. The Jungle’s cast universally agreed that this Vitality roster was completely unfixable, insomuch as they would never achieve the full potential for which they were created – an LEC victory and international success.
Best April Fools joke yet today has been from Alphari. Actual good one
— Christian Rivera (@IWDominate) April 1, 2022
To soften the blow somewhat, IWDominate countered that there was still some hope for Vitality to perform well. Even if performing well just meant making it to Worlds as the LEC’s third seed in Summer. But he was quick to remind the audience that “I still don’t they’ll be ‘good’, not as good as Fnatic or able to potentially beat them.”
“They could be like a random EU team that gets third domestically, gets into group stage at Worlds, goes 1-5 and just gets kicked out immediately.”
