Larssen playing League of Legends with Rogue.

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The LEC players who rose through the UK leagues

Domestic League of Legends competitions like the UKLC can provide a great pathway for players to reach the highest level.

Written by Jack Stewart

5 min readPublished on 03.07.2019 · 7:54 UTC

The success of the LEC has trickled down across Europe with academy teams pushing regional leagues to another level. Every season, in leagues like the UKLC, stars of the future compete in a bid to qualify for the European Masters, where the winners of domestic leagues compete for the title.

In the latest iteration of the tournament, Fnatic Rising proved that the UK scene can compete with the best by reaching the grand final but they aren’t the UK’s only success story. There are plenty of players in and around the LEC who got their first break in the UK.

LVP’s UKLC is returning soon and will showcase rising stars who are ready to prove themselves. The dream for them will be to step up to the LEC, and if they manage it they will be following in the footsteps of these trailblazers who rose through the UK's domestic scene to reach the top.

Alphari

Starting things off in the top-lane, Welshman Barney 'Alphari' Morris is possibly having the season of his career so far after finishing second in the LEC Spring Split Playoffs with Origen.

Alphari started his career in 2015, competing in the UK scene for a couple of years with the likes of Team Infused and Renegades Banditos, and it didn’t take him long to get his big break. In 2016 he joined Misfits and helped them dominate the Challenger Series with a 9-1 record securing them promotion into the EU LCS for the 2017 Spring Split.

Ahead of his LCS debut, Alphari travelled to South Korea for a bootcamp where he caught the eye of popular Twitch streamer and LCK caster Nick 'LS' De Cesare, who labelled the Welshman as “one of the best top laners I’ve seen.” He also revealed that world-renowned jungler Choi 'DanDy' In-kyu had asked him who Alphari was as he didn’t believe he was a western player.

Alphari has shown glimpses of that promise, especially during Worlds 2017 where he and Misfits came agonisingly close to defeating SK Telecom T1 in one of the greatest European performances of all time. Still only 19-years-old, there’s a lot more to come from this man.

Larssen

One of the most recent additions to the LEC, there are high, high hopes for Emil 'Larssen' Larsson, who was recently promoted to Rogue’s starting line-up after finishing school.

The Swedish mid-laner began competing at 16 years of age and cut his teeth in the UK’s regional tournaments. A multi-time ESL UK Premiership champion who once even had a makeshift team named after himself (Team Larssen), Larssen’s potential has always been clear to see. It was a case of when he would reach the LEC, not if.

With a young line-up, Rogue have had a slow start but Larssen has been the star man, leading the league’s mid-laners for a share of team’s total damage to champions (30.1%), and is behind only Fnatic’s Tim 'Nemesis' Lipovsek in gold difference at 10 minutes (197). There’s a long way to go this split, and if Rogue turn things around it will likely be because of the mid-laner.

Broxah

Probably the biggest name and success story on this list, Fnatic jungler Mads 'Broxah' Brock-Pedersen is a multi-time European champion and a Worlds finalist.

Like Larssen, the Dane began to make a name for himself while competing in the UK scene with teams such as Epiphany Bolt and Bulldog Esports before he was scouted by Fnatic. He spent just five months in Fnatic’s academy before being promoted to the first team where he has since become one of the main faces of the organisation.

It’s a similar route to that of Englishman Daniel 'Dan' Hockley, who, at the start of this split, was promoted from Fnatic Rising to the first team to give Broxah competition. However, he’ll be lucky to get a game as Broxah is in immense form as shown by his recent performance in the win against G2. “He couldn’t have played better; it’s impossible,” were the words of LCK caster Chris 'PapaSmithy' Smith when reviewing the game. It’s going to take a lot to stop Broxah in the coming months.

Maxlore

Another jungler, Englishman Nubar 'Maxlore' Sarafian has at times looked like one of the best junglers in Europe.

Formerly a teammate of Alphari, both in the UK regional leagues with To Infinity and Beyond and in the EU LCS at Misfits, Maxlore is one of the strongest players to come from the UK. He played an instrumental role in getting Misfits to Worlds with his dominant jungle performances, before also playing well in the aforementioned series against SKT.

However, Maxlore hasn’t quite reached those same heights since and has been struggling on Misfits under-performing super-team this season. Now sharing his role with Thomas 'Kirei' Yuen, Maxlore will have to recapture his old form if he wants to continue starting each week.

Caedrel

Finally, this list wouldn’t be complete without an honourable mention for the self-proclaimed plucky British underdogs, Excel Esports. The British organisation worked its way through the UK leagues into the LEC and try to recreate that growth with its players.

Marc 'Caedrel' Lamont is the prime example of that philosophy. The Englishman began his career as a mid-laner playing all over the world, including in the UK with Renegades Banditos before he got his break in the EU LCS with H2K. Caedrel would eventually role-swap to the jungle and returned to the UK with Diabolus Gaming to hone his skills in his new position.

Now Caedrel is back at the top with Excel and has been one of the team's strongest performers in the LEC despite the organisation's struggles so far this split. There's still a slight chance that Excel can make the Playoffs and if they do, Caedrel will have played a huge part in that turnaround.