A staple of G2 Esports’ League of Legends lineup is moving on to new adventures. Jungler Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski has made an official announcement that he’ll be leaving the LEC team after five years. He will be looking for a new to represent in the 2023 season.

Jankos made the announcement on his own YouTube channel. He reminisces on his time at G2 in 2022, saying, “We won Spring, we went to MSI, which means we already surpassed the expectations from a lot of people.” G2’s 2022 lineup wasn’t seen as a title-contesting one, especially since Fnatic and Vitality going all-out with hiring top-tier players. Despite defying the expectations in the LEC Spring Split, Jankos said that losing the Summer Split finals to Rogue hurt a lot. “That was a very big hit. People expected us to win and we dismantled [Rogue] the week prior.”

Jankos also addresses G2’s performance at Worlds 2022. The team failed to make it out of the Group Stage, setting a disappointing 1-5 score. “Honestly, our scrim results were quite good,” he says. “When we were scrimming Eastern teams, I think we were holding our ground pretty well.” As for the team, Jankos states that he thoroughly enjoyed playing with the roster. “I have had the most fun I’ve had playing League of Legends in a while, playing with [Broken Blade], Flakked, [Targamas], and caPs.”

No retirement for Jankos yet

Though Jankos is parting ways with G2, he is not stepping away from playing League of Legends competitively. Although he has been competing since 2013, Jankos says he still feels the desire to chase trophies. “I want to compete domestically on the highest level,” he states. “I do not think about retiring. I didn’t really think about leaving G2, but then G2 made the decision that they want to try a different jungler for next year.”

Although it wasn’t Jankos’ choice, he thinks G2’s decision to look for a new jungler is logical, explaining, “In my opinion, it makes perfect sense. I’ve been in this org for five years now. It’s been the longest I have been in a team ever.” He adds that changing environment might be beneficial for him, as he’ll get to play with new players and step up to the leadership role he has grown into over the past years.

Jankos closes by reminiscing more about his time at G2. “I’ve had the best years of my life at G2. I’m excited to see what the roster is gonna be for them next year.” He follows swiftly, laughing, “That being said, I really want to destroy them next year!”

A golden career at G2

When Jankos joined G2 Esports for the 2018 season, the roster ended second in the EU LCS (the predecessor of the LEC) Spring Split. They qualified for Worlds 2018 and made it to the semifinals, where the team was taken down by eventual world champion Invictus Gaming. In 2019, G2 took off. The Wunder/Jankos/caPs/Perkz/Mikyx lineup dominated Europe and became the first LEC team to win the Mid-Season Invitational. They made it all the way to the Worlds 2019 finals, but fell short against FunPlus Phoenix.

Jankos continued walking a successful road in 2020. G2 Esports won two additional back-to-back LEC titles and made it far into the world championship again, this time stranding in the semifinal. After G2 failed to claim a title in 2021, Jankos was one of only two people part of G2’s League of Legends division to survive a massive overhaul. Only he and caPs remained. With the new lineup, G2 won the 2022 Spring Split.