SK Gaming has pulled back the curtain and revealed its lineup for the 2023 LEC season. The organization has made sweeping changes to the roster, replacing four players.
The only SK player to have survived the offseason is mid laner Daniel “Sertuss” Gamani. The young German made his LEC debut in 2022 with SK and provided a stable base for the squad, particularly when playing Akali and LeBlanc.
On the top side, Sertuss is flanked by two of his 2022 opponents. Top laner Joel “Irrelevant” Scharoll, who played for Misfits Gaming in 2022, dons SK Gaming’s magenta colors for the next season. Former Excel Esports jungler Mark “Markoon” van Woensel completes SK’s top side. On the other side of the map, SK fields the bot lane duo of Thomas “Exakick” Foucou and Mads “Doss” Schwartz. The duo is already familiar with each other, as they played in the LFL together in 2022, under the LDLC OL banner.
Simon “Swiffer” Papamarkos remains the head coach for SK in the 2023 season. He’ll be backed up by assistant coach David “OWN3R” Rodriguez.
Escaping eighth place
The revised SK roster has low expectations to surpass. The organization struggled a lot in the 2022 LEC season, finishing eighth place in both the Spring Split and in the Summer Split. Both times, they picked up seven wins and eleven losses in the regular split. Since the LEC became a franchised competition in 2019, the organization has reached the playoffs three times.
SK has decent odds of escaping best-of-ones in 2023, though. In the renewed LEC format, teams play nine best-of-ones at the start of the split. After that, the top eight advances to a best-of-three setting, which gives teams more time to prove themselves in a series. Should SK Gaming prove itself there and finish in the top four, the squad advances to the playoffs, where they’ll play a best-of-five in the semifinal.
