Excel Esports To Round Out Their 2023 LEC Roster With Vetheo and Targamas

XL will come into the 2023 season with a near-complete roster overhaul.

The 2022 Season was the most successful season in Excel Esports' history. The organization made their first LEC Playoffs during the Split Split, an achievement they managed to repeat in Summer. Unfortunately, both journeys ended early in 2-3 first-round losses without any best-of-series success yet. So despite a thriving 2022, Excel turned their eyes higher and made some big moves in this off-season.

Two big news from the Excel Esports camp came out yesterday in a quick fashion. First Brieuc “LEC Wooloo” Seeger tweeted that the 2022 LEC Spring Split MVP, Vincent “Vetheo” Berrié would be joining XL. A couple of minutes later Blix.gg’s Marián “Eros” Stoica reported Raphaël “Targamas” Crabbé has reached a verbal agreement with the team following his exit from G2 Esports.

[Sources] Mid laner Vetheo 🇫🇷 has reached a verbal agreement with EXCEL for next year. pic.twitter.com/BQk0auSunb

— LEC Wooloo 🇪🇺 (@LEC_Wooloo) November 7, 2022

Vetheo and Targamas aren’t the first players Excel brought into the roster for 2023. Actually, the only remaining player from Summer 2022 will be the star ADC Patrik “Patrik” Jírů. XL’s first move was the signing of the reigning LEC champion top laner, Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu, followed by the veteran jungler Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir from Astralis to reunite two Romanian players first time since their Splyce days.

XL top side had a great start to the last split but their performances had started to falter as time went on, and their performances in the Fnatic reverse sweep drew a lot of criticism. Odoamne/Xerxe duo on the other had both had a bit of a resurgence last year. Another aspect that might’ve pushed XL in their direction is that both are veteran players that can offer more consistency throughout the year.

On the other side, the other two recent signings have much more upside. Both Targamas and Vetheo already showed they can perform at a very high level in LEC, and also they are very young players that can be the faces of a franchise. While the fans already know how good Vetheo can be, he was the MVP after all, Targamas will probably be the more interesting signing.

XL’s game plan in the last couple of years generally revolved around their bot lane. Patrik has been with XL for three years now, and Targamas will be his fourth support. Synergy is important in a bot lane duo, and Patrick really didn’t have the chance to spend more than two splits with the same support. Their partnership in bot lane can make or break the Excel Esports’ 2023 Season.