After beginning the 2020 LEC season with a 0-4 start, Schalke 04 Esports made some changes in the jungle.
The organization revealed a couple of weeks ago that star academy jungler Lukas “Lurox” Thoma will be subbing in for Erberk “Gilius” Demir ahead of the team’s week three matches. Schalke’s academy team, Evolution, is 5-0 in the Prime League Pro Division and Lurox has been an integral part of their success.
“We decided to give Lurox the shot on the big stage going for his first LEC weekend,” the organization said. “It is not about the performance of Gilius that Lurox will play… it’s about Lurox’s performance. We will back him up as good as we can, give him the confidence he needs to give us the first win this weekend.”
Schalke had high expectations for themselves in the 2020 LEC season, especially after reuniting legendary AD carry Konstantinos-Napoleon “FORG1VEN” Tzortziou with top laner Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu. But blowing early leads and making poor decisions has placed the team at the bottom of the standings with a 0-4 Team Vitality to keep them company.
Lurox has had great success playing aggressive junglers, like Elise, Jarvan IV, and Lee Sin, for the academy team. With a 6.13 KDA and an average 67 percent kill participation, according to Leaguepedia, he’ll likely try to make sure his presence is felt on the big stage.
Looking back after 2 weeks with Lurox, Schalke 04 is looking more confident in some games, they even managed to pick up a win against G2 Esports yesterday. Will Schalke 04 finally get back on the track and start winning more games or was the yesterday win just a fluke, which won’t repeat anymore. While on one hand, fans are happy that Schalke 04 is trying out something new, they are also unhappy with the organization replacing Gilius, as he is a veteran from the League who they’ve grown fond to see on the stage.
Their current score of 1-7 could have been better if Lurox would’ve been subbed in from the start, as his gameplay is more superior compared to Gilius based on the latest games. His pathing is much better and his teamfight presence can be felt. Young rookies rise up every year in LEC and this year is no difference, there are multiple rookies on most teams, most notably MAD Lions who have been showing up huge.
Another big change happened in the ADC role for Schalke 04 which was pivotal to their success yesterday, stay tuned to find out more information in the next couple of days.
