While the 2022 League of Legends World Championship is still ongoing, the offseason for teams that didn’t make it to the tournament is slowly heating up. Erberk “Gilius” Demir, the jungler for SK Gaming’s LEC team in the 2022 season, has been given permission to talk with other teams about the 2023 season.
Gilius made the announcement himself on Twitter. He says he’ll be talking to teams that compete in “major leagues”, expressing his desire to stay in the LEC while also thinking about potential LCS offers.
Gilius’ contract with SK Gaming lasts until November 2023 according to Riot Games’ Global Contract Database. Usually, this would mean that Gilius’ new employer pays SK Gaming a sum to buy out the remainder of the contract, compensating SK for the loss of Gilius’ services. However, since it appears SK Gaming wants to part ways with the jungler, there is a chance this buyout will be very low or nonexistent at all.
SK Gaming and Gilius teamed up together for the LEC in 2022 after he spent the 2021 Summer Split on the bench of Schalke 04. But the LEC season did not go as planned for SK Gaming. The team narrowly missed out on making it to the 2022 Spring Split playoffs. Though SK started the Summer Split poorly as well, they gradually raked in a few wins and were once again in the position to make it to the playoffs. However, in the final week of the regular split, SK came up short.
Gilius isn’t the only SK Gaming player who seems to part ways with the organization. Top laner Janik “JNX” Bartels, whose contract runs out at the end of the year, shared a message similar to that of Gilius in September. Bot laner Jean “Jezu” Massol and support Erik “Treatz” Wessén announced the same, just a few days later. Only mid laner Daniel “Sertuss” Gamani seems to stay with SK Gaming for now.
