Excel Esports

This article is about esport organisation. For the esport tournament using Microsoft Excel, see Financial Modeling World Cup.

Excel Esports
Logo of Excel Esports
Short nameEXCEL, XL
DivisionsLeague of Legends
Fortnite Battle Royale
Valorant
FoundedDecember 2014 (2014-12)
Based inLondon, United Kingdom
CEOTim Reichert
PartnersJD Sports, EE Limited, HSBC Bank, Sony Inzone, PCSPECIALIST.
Motto"The Power of Better"[1]
Websitexl.gg Edit this at Wikidata

Excel Esports (previously stylized as exceL Esports) was a British esports organisation. Its main League of Legends division was one of ten teams competing in the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC), the top level of professional League of Legends in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.[2][3]

On 14 December 2023, Excel Esports and Giants Gaming announced a merger, forming GIANTX.[4]

League of Legends

History

Logo of Excel Esports from 2019 to 2020

2018

Riot Games announced on 20 November 2018 that Excel Esports would be one of ten franchise partners participating in the newly rebranded League of Legends European Championship (LEC).[5] On 3 January 2019, Excel Esports announced that it would house a training facility in Twickenham Stadium.[6][7]

2019

For the 2019 LEC Spring Split, Excel signed top laner Ki "Expect" Dae-han,[8] jungler Marc "Caedrel" Lamont,[9] mid laner Fabian "Exile" Schubert, bot laner Jesper "Jeskla" Stromberg,[10] and support Raymond "kaSing" Tsang.[11] In addition to the team's main roster, five other players were also signed as substitutes who would alternate games with players on the main roster.[12] However, the only substitutes who played on-stage in the LEC were mid laner Joran "Special" Scheffer[13] and support Patryk "Mystiques" Piórkowski.[14]

On 28 May 2019, Son "Mickey" Young-min officially joined Excel as starting mid laner.[15] However, he did not play until the second week of the 2019 LEC Summer Split due to visa issues.[16] On 20 June 2019, it was announced that Jeskla and Mystiques would replace Hjarnan and kaSing in the bot lane, and that the latter two would play for Excel UK.[17]

2022

In November 2022, it was announced Excel had acquired the Stuttgart-based esports e-learning platform, Hitcap.[18]

Valorant

History

Excel Esports announced on 8 March 2021 that they would be entering the competitive Valorant scene with their signing of Ignition Series Champion David "Davidp" Prins, who would be the team's captain.[19]

Game Changers

In 2022, EE in partnership with EXCEL ESPORTS entered the VALORANT Champions Tour: Game Changers EMEA, a women-only esports team.

World of Warcraft

History

In August 2018, Excel Esports acquired the WoW roster of Kjell's Angels, which consisted of Rory "Cirra" Singer, Rasmus "Divinefield" Andersen, Hakon "Dorullkjell" Walberg, Lari "Ashine" Strandberg and Kristoffer "Herudra" Jensen. The team participated in the Mythic Dungeon Invitational under the name Excel's Angels.[20]

References

  1. ^ Lunardi, Lara (12 November 2020). "League of Legends: EXCEL ESPORTS introduces The Power of Better into major brand update". InvenGlobal. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  2. ^ "exceL Esports". eu.lolesports.com. LoL Esports. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  3. ^ Ashton, Graham (8 January 2019). "EXCEL Rebrands Ahead of Debut LEC Season". The Esports Observer. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  4. ^ "A New Era: EXCEL ESPORTS and Giants Gaming announce merger, forming GIANTX". A NEW CHAPTER BEGINS. 14 December 2023.
  5. ^ Rietkerk, Remer; Pecchia, Joe (20 November 2018). "Take a closer look at the LEC". LoL Esports (Riot Games). Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  6. ^ Abbas, Malcolm (3 January 2019). "ExceL Esports to house training facility in Twickenham Stadium". Dot Esports. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  7. ^ Ringng, Oliver (4 January 2019). "exceL Esports announce League of Legends training facility at Twickenham Stadium". Esports Insider. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  8. ^ Binkowski, Justin (7 December 2018). "Expect joins exceL Esports for the 2019 LEC season". Dot Esports. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  9. ^ Rodriguez, Veronika (2 December 2018). "Caedrel Officially Joins ExceL Esports for 2019 LEC". DBLTAP. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  10. ^ Chouadria, Adel (30 November 2018). "Jeskla joins exceL Esports for 2019 LEC season". Phase Dive. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  11. ^ Li, Xing (28 November 2018). "Excel Esports signs Kasing as its first LEC player". Dot Esports. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  12. ^ Newell, Adam (6 January 2019). "ExceL Esports rebrands heading into the 2019 LEC season". Dot Esports. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  13. ^ Matuschak, Darius (12 February 2019). "Excel will sub in Academy Midlaner Special for Exile for Week 5 of LEC". The Shotcaller. Retrieved 27 April 2019.[permanent dead link‍]
  14. ^ "Kasing to play in UKLC for Excel this week as Mystiques gets LEC call-up". Esports News UK. 5 March 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  15. ^ Esguerra, Tyler (28 May 2019). "Excel Esports signs Mickey as starting mid laner for 2019 Summer Split". Dot Esports. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  16. ^ Esguerra, Tyler (13 June 2019). "Misfits move Kirei to starting LEC roster over Maxlore, Excel to start Mickey over Special". Dot Esports. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  17. ^ Esguerra, Tyler (20 June 2019). "Misfits and Excel Esports make some changes to starting LEC lineups for week 3 of the Summer Split". Dot Esports. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  18. ^ Šimić, Ivan (15 November 2022). "EXCEL ESPORTS acquires Hitcap assets". Esports Insider. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  19. ^ Dzhelil, Barasch (8 March 2021). "EXCEL ESPORTS Expands into VALORANT Competitive With Signing of DavidP". Gamezo. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  20. ^ Hollingsworth, David (23 October 2018). "exceL Esports, Icy Veins and Enthusiast Gaming announce WoW partnership". Esports Insider. Retrieved 14 January 2019.