No Pressure: XL “Abbedagge” speaks out on declining level of LEC’s mid laners

In the wake of their incredible LEC Summer Playoffs run in which Excel earned a 2nd place finish, Excel midlaner Felix “Abbedagge” Braun spoke up on the current state of the LEC as a region. More specifically, he pointed to the current talent pool in the mid lane, stating how he feels it has regressed to the point where LEC mid laners are not gaining hard enough leads or pushing leads even further when they gain them. In general, his criticism stems from a feeling growing passivity as a trait amongst the majority of LEC mid laners to become massive threats for their teams.

This month, the 23-year-old hopped onto the Euro League podcast, hosted by “Rich.” He spoke, amongst other things, on the current state of the EMEA mid lane talent pool. Felix criticized the current lack of proactivity from the vast majority of tier 1 mid laner, stating that he felt there was ‘no pressure.’ He did clarify that what he said did not come from a sense of cockiness. Far from it, as he stated he felt he himself was not yet at his best level. However, he stated how many LEC mid laners failed during the laning phase to ‘take advantage or push preferable matchups as much as they could.’ Essentially, he was stating that LEC mid laner were doing the bare minimum and not creating a strong lead despite having advantages like counter picks for their lane and matchup advantages.

Veteran of the Scene

It would be easy to take Felix’s words as dismissive of LEC’s talent, but the Excel mid laner has been around the block several times now. As a veteran of the scene, he certainly brings weight when he speaks. Since his debut in 2016, he has played with notable players who he came up with, including “BrokenBlade”, “Targamas”, “Closer”, “Ignar”, “Odoamne”, “Ssumday”, and “huhi”. He has also been a part of 11 rosters before joining Excel.

In March 2022, he was called up from his substitute position to replace Vincent “Vetheo” Berrié. Despite the mid-season substitution, Excel still struggled to perform during the Spring split. Come the Summer split, however, and Excel made 3rd during the regular season. They then finished 2nd during the Summer Playoffs, cementing themselves with a strong run to cap off their 2023 season performance. Now they look to earn a spot to Worlds 2023 through the LEC Season Finals (read more here).

It Doesn’t Feel Like There’s a Challenge At All

Those were “Abbedagge’s” words months after he returned to the EMEA stage after his stint in NA.  ‘Even when I came back with Excel in Spring, I was scrimming against people and I [thought] there was no pressure,’ Felix said. ‘I’m coming in, and I’m solo killing [and] taking over these lanes…it doesn’t feel like there’s a challenge at all. We didn’t scrim “Caps”, but it really felt like there’s no great competition.

During the podcase, he and Rich discussed how they felt aggression in the mid lane has fallen off drastically in the past few seasons. They also noted how many of the mid laners now defaulted to playing more passively. This even included players like “Caps”, who has always traditionally been known for his aggressive laning phase. Part of this has come from recent metas where mid laners played more supportive, utility-based mid laners such as Annie and Malphite. With the meta now swinging back into carry mid laner champions such as Azir, Neeko, and Jayce, Europe’s mid laners will need to re-tap back into that former aggression and really push their leads.

Low Gold Difference

This gap can be statistically proven via the gold difference chart at the 10-minute mark. Across all the LEC mid laners, only three mid laners lie in the top 20 players with the highest average gold difference. This is according to stats on Oracle’s Elixir, where “Caps”, “Humanoid”, and “Larssen” were the only mid laners to have notable stats in this category. Every other LEC mid laner had middling to poor stats during the Summer split, showcasing this decline.

Naturally this cannot be taken in isolation due to factors such as jungle gank frequency, support roams and matchups in the other lanes creating spillover pressure into the midlane. However, it still does not paint a pretty picture of the current state of the LEC.

This is also in contrast to other regions such as the LPL, where the mid laners are well known for their aggressive plays and willingness to push their self-advantages to create gold leads for their teams. Should the LEC continue with this playstyle, they will quickly find it unsustainable when they go up against the top LCK and LPL mid laners of the world.

Credit: Michal Konkol/Riot Games