Jungler Linas "Lyncas" Nauncikas is set to join Team Vitality in the LEC, sources tell Sheep Esports on Sunday. While the player will still be playing this EMEA Masters with Karmine Corp Blue, he will be taking over the spot left by Kacper "Daglas" Dagiel in the LEC this summer.

Not a first LEC opportunity

Lyncas had his first opportunity to join the LEC one year ago when Excel were exploring options to replace Jungler Andrei "Xerxe" Dragomir after the Spring Split. Lyncas ended up refusing the offer due to the risk of joining a bottom team and confident about his opportunities in the future. Excel later signed Lee "Peach" Min-gyu instead.

For the 2023-2024 offseason, Lyncas ended up being quite unfortunate. The Lithuanian Jungler was in advanced talks with FlyQuest in the LCS. Sadly for him, the LCS team ended up signing Kacper "Inspired" Słoma.

In the LEC, Lyncas was also considered by both Karmine Corp (LEC) and GIANTX who ended up fielding other junglers. He also came in as second option to Rogue who signed Jungler Mark "Markoon" van Woensel.

Additionally, Lyncas was also an option for MAD Lions had they kept the coaching staff of James "Mac" MacCormack & Patrick "Pad" Suckow-Breum. The coaching staff, who ended up joining Vitality as a consequence, probably value Lyncas a lot as they've wanted to work with him previously.

An LFL trophy with KCB

Following last offseason, Karmine Corp ended up signing Lyncas for their academy team in the LFL. The organization probably didn't expect to sign him at first due to the interest he had in Tier 1 leagues.

However, despite ending up another split in European Regional Leagues, the young jungler didn't lose any motivation. Indeed, Karmine Corp Blue have once again lifted the LFL trophy against a strong Team BDS Academy team. Lyncas and his team will be playing one last tournament together as they qualified to EMEA Masters.

This offseason, Karmine Corp considered to promote Lyncas to their LEC team but the jungler ended up deciding against that possibility in order to join Team Vitality in the end. While Karmine Corp didn't sign the transfer to Vitality yet, they also don't want to block their player from going to the LEC.

Lyncas is now the second player that the French organisation is missing out on this offseason. However, Karmine Corp is very active on the market organising tryouts with many players.

Vitality on the rise in the LEC

From a sixth place finish in Winter, to Top 4 in Spring, Vitality have seen a lot of progression this year. With this acquisition of Lyncas, the team will try to become a top contender and qualify to Worlds.

This year's Vitality project has been built around the new coaching staff. They are leading for a big part this new roster. They know Lyncas well already and have worked with him for a long time. They were probably waiting for the opportunity and this change might be in their eyes one that will work out better in the long term for Vitality.

Sadly, this means that the future of 18-year-old rookie Daglas is for now undecided, despite a quick rise to a high level of competition. For the rest of the roster, no more changes are expected coming into the Summer Split.

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EDIT: The CEO of Karmine Corp has communicated following our report