A breath of fresh air has swept through Team Heretics during this offseason. After a second year without qualifying for the Season Finals, the Spanish team has completely changed its approach for the next LEC season. While the club had relied on the experience of G2 Esports alumni to build its roster for 2024, this year Heretics is betting on youth. “This, offseason we not only changed management for our LoL Department but we also changed our approach on how we want to do things in Heretics and focus more on the long-term,” explains Niklas Geiß, Heretics’ LEC Team Director. “We wanted a clean cut with a new project, new approaches and a new culture.”

With some of the LEC's big names coming to the end of their contracts - Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski and Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus - the team decided to start over and keep only one element, AD Carry Victor “Flakked” Lirola. “We felt like he is the one not giving up, continuing the grind and fighting through a not optimal environment,” justifies Niklas. “In the last year, there were a lot of mornings and evenings where he was the only one grinding in the LoL practice room. The data collected throughout the season also supported that and he was clearly outstanding. He showed on the day-to-day what we wanted to see in the new players that we added but this time he will be in the more veteran position.”

Three rookies

Four new faces will defend Heretics' banner from January 18. They include jungler Théo “Sheo” Borile, as well as three rookies: toplaner Carl “Carlsen” Carlsen, midlaner Kamil “Kamiloo” Haudegond and support Paul “Stend” Lardin.“We can't recycle the same players over and over again, importing players, or not giving rookies any chance and expect better (international) results”, Niklas insists.

This new roster was built jointly by Niklas and Head Coach Víctor “Machuki” Machuka Segura, promoted from the academy team before Summer 2024. “When Machuki and I had our first talks together I was really happy to see that we think very similar when it comes to what makes a team strong and what should be the main focus when building the 2025 roster. We both wanted a roster that was built for a long-term project with players that are open for new approaches and doing things differently. A big part was also valuing things outside of the game & not only the ingame performance as a key-indicator when we looked for a new player. Potential new players that overslept or were not able to attend interviews at 11:00 am because of a bad sleeping schedule instantly fell out of our rankings without any hesitation.”

"We were honestly surprised that BDS would let Sheo"

After deciding to retain Flakked, the Team Director and Head Coach quickly decided to promote Carlsen, who won both Superliga splits in 2024 with TH's academy, and to bring in Sheo. “Carlsen showcased everything we were looking for in a player this offseason. If he sticks to that he will become one of the best ones without any doubts. Other toplaners couldn't convince us to not go with Carlsen so we decided quite early in the offseason to go with him,” Niklas explains. Heretics has also considered promoting Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir. “We were honestly surprised that BDS would let Sheo go and acted quickly”, the Team Director indicates. “Luckily we were able to secure Sheo fast since he was our clear number one and therefore we had our two experienced players for the new roster.”

Sheo already has two years' experience in the LEC. While he hasn't managed to win a title, the jungler has come close (2nd at Spring 2023, 3rd of three splits in the 2024 season) and has established himself as one of the league's top junglers. The French player is in fact the third-best jungler over the whole of 2024 according to Sheep Stats, with an average score of 63/100. ”He often gets underrated by a lot of people,” Niklas considers. “We are talking about a jungler that was predominantly in the top ranks wherever he played and we made it pretty clear to him that we want him as quick as possible. Théo convinced us with his gameplay, experience and work ethic and besides that he is an awesome team person. We believe he will be an important piece in our puzzle.”

Kamiloo, the gamble

After an excellent season with Vitality Bee in the LFL, Stend also featured early on in the Spanish team's first options - the arrival of the LEC support was widely expected. “Stend never played in the LEC and even if that sounds like a disadvantage for a lot of people, we believe that this could be actually a good thing since that also means there are no old habits from previous LEC teams,” Niklas explains. “He brings in a lot of valuable assets to the team environment but also when it comes to the gameplay side. Besides that he also comes from a traditional sports background that is beneficial for the whole team.”

That left the midlane to be filled. This is where Heretics really surprised everyone. Kamiloo has never played in an ERL 1 and will become the first player in history to make the jump from an ERL 2 to the LEC. “For the midlane position it was a bit more complicated and open and we had a few options there,” Niklas details. As previously reported by Sheep Esports, Heretics also considered Vincent “Vetheo” Berrié and Tolga "Serin" Ölmez — Heretics didn’t confirm or comment this subject.

“We also had no problems to consider players that maybe on the first look make no sense for some people. However the feedback about Kamiloo was without exception positive and he convinced us in the interviews as well. Therefore we offered him and some other options a spot for our midlane tryouts. In the first tryouts against an ERL team he already showcased things that were really uncommon for a rookie when it comes to gameplay and comms (in a positive way). He reached the final stage of our tryouts since we also wanted to see him against other LEC teams, where he also convinced us.”

"We will be fine"

Niklas is aware that this choice may take some time to pay off. “While other options might have been better for first split results, we believe that Kamiloo was the best fit for our team and will overcome a lot of other midlaners in the future to become one of the greatest.” More generally, this project will inevitably take time to set up. “We are here to write a new story with new players and not trying to continue one that was already written, we are fine if that takes some time,” Niklas assures. The team has also strengthened its staff “around the rookies to make the transition into the LEC easier”. Adrià “Adrià GR” García Rey, Deam “Deam147” Saavedra and Victor “Nayas” Quevrin – who has been working with Kamiloo for a year and a half – joined the team in December.

As the season kicks off, many consider Heretics to be the team with the least resources. But that doesn't affect Niklas's confidence: “We don't really care about it and I recommend checking our 2024 VCT-Story [on VALORANT] , where we got ranked similar and ended up in a World Championship final twice. I am not saying that we will do something similar in LEC in the first year but I see personally what our amazing staff and players are doing in the day-to-day work and how they approach things. We can´t talk about worlds all the time when in reality we couldn't even make it to the LEC Finals (Top6) twice in a row. It will be a step by step and the inside of the team matters and not the trouble around it. We will be fine. WAB”

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3. Movistar KOI with VP of Operations Feiron
4. GIANTX with Head Coach Guilhoto
5. Team BDS with Head Coach Striker & General Manager Mathieu
6. Karmine Corp with Head Coach Reha