For the 2023 Academy League season, Team Heretics will add a young Spanish talent.
Victor “Flakked” Lirola Tortosa, who made his LEC debut as G2 Esports’ primary AD carry, has moved on to Team Heretics for the remainder of the year. Journalist Alejandro Gomis claims that the 21-year-old will compete for the group’s League of Legends Academy team in the LVP.
The defending LEC champions wiped the slate clean in the summer by trading Rekkles, Mikyx, and Wunder after a lackluster 2021 campaign. Raphael “Targamas” Crabbé, a former support for Karmine Corp, was chosen by G2 as their 2022 acquisition over senior players. Flakked will join Crabbé in the bottom lane.
Sources: Flakked 🇪🇸 reaches a verbal agreement with Team Heretics and will be the new ADC of the Spanish team's academy.
All details (soon) pic.twitter.com/0mUfvnsEkI
— Alejandro Gomis (@anonimotum) November 10, 2022
The new lineup immediately found success. Although they had a mediocre 11-7 record at the end of the 2022 LEC Spring Split, they finally won the league title after dominating the lower bracket in one of the league’s strongest postseason performances in recent memory. The team also established a legendary winning streak that lasted from the second round of the lower bracket of the 2022 LEC Spring Split until the ninth day of the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational, when PSG Talon ended the streak at 24 victories in a row.
It was a promising beginning for G2’s new lineup, even if they were ultimately swept by T1 in the tournament’s knockout round. The next summer, when G2 won the league title with a 12-6 record, they cemented their spot as one of the top teams, and confidence skyrocketed.
The team failed to prevent Odoamne from winning the first LEC trophy of his career, which was unfortunate for G2’s ardent supporters. Additionally, at the 2022 World Championship, the team struggled to a dismal 1-5 record through the group stage against teams from China’s JD Gaming, Korea’s DWG KIA, and North America’s Evil Geniuses.
With the loss of their longstanding leading jungler Jankos, the Samurai appear to be entering a new era. It’s virtually clear that G2 will have a completely new appearance for the next Spring Split given the rumors that Flakked and Targamas will be moving to new homes in 2023.
On the other hand, Team Heretics is constructing a potential bright future in the LEC. The organization is concentrating on building a team that fans will support once the new competitive circuit gets underway after purchasing its spot in the league from Misfits Gaming earlier this summer.