Jankos shows why he’s still the best LEC jungler despite Heretics’ struggles
Michal Konkol/Riot GamesEven with Team Heretics being pretty low in the LEC standings, Jankos has managed to climb to the top statistically in what could be his best split yet.
Team Heretics was a big question mark going into 2023. Evi was the first-ever Japanese import to come into the LEC, Jackspectra was a high-tier ERL ADC who hadn’t gotten his big break yet, and Ruby has had middling success playing across multiple regions. Mersa was known as a solid support player before coming to Team Heretics, but he hasn’t exactly been role-defining.
Meanwhile, Marcin ‘Jankos’ Jankoswski is one of the most successful and recognized players in the history of League of Legends. He’s been competing for over a decade, played on G2’s MSI-winning roster in 2019, and has a trophy cabinet almost as stacked as his number of all-pro nods.
Jankos has held onto his dominance in the jungle statistically and is on top of every other jungler in the LEC Spring Split by most metrics. But this success is despite Team Heretics, not because of them.
Jankos tops LEC stats despite being on low-tier team
G2 is an organization that regularly tops their region, and they’ve got the most domestic first-place finishes in Europe. Jankos was a core part of G2 for years, guiding them through many of their best performances as a jungler with an incredibly high level of knowledge about the role and strong mechanics to boot.
With him being on a successful team, many wondered if he’d be able to replicate that high level of success when separated from an all-time great mid-laner like Caps.
It’s been shown through the Winter and Spring splits that he’s certainly still got it, even with Team Heretics generally having poor performance. This has started a conversation amongst fans about how successful this roster can be.
Out of every LEC jungler, Jankos has the most kills per game, most damage, most damage per minute, highest gold difference, most first-blood participation, and the most solo kills while still maintaining top stats in farming. This is one of the best splits in his career from a statistical standpoint, and when separated from Team Heretics’ final results, he looks like the kind of player you’d see on a top 3 team.
The overall response has been a mix of love for Jankos and skepticism at Team Heretics’ current roster. Many fans wonder how Team Heretics is struggling so much despite having such a strong jungle presence.
They still have time to turn things around and make a strong playoff run, with their score at the time of writing being 2-4, but fans are beginning to wonder whether or not we’ll see some roster moves if the team continues to have mediocre showings. If Winter results are anything to go by, we shouldn’t be expecting some big miracle run out of this team.
One thing’s for sure though: Jankos isn’t on the chopping block.