by Jeremy Waxman on May 13, 2015
2015 held so much promise for Elements. They became the first team not named Fnatic to win an EU LCS split last summer, and appeared to upgrade their AD Carry position, taking Martin "Rekkles" Larsson over Erik "Tabzz" van Helvert. In theory, they should have been far and away the best team in Europe. Instead, they struggled all season, finishing in 7th place; just good enough to avoid having to defend their spot in the promotion tournament, but not good enough to make the playoffs. It shouldn't come as a shock, then, that the roster has been shaken up significantly.
As the team captain and most prominent figure, Henrik "Froggen" Hansen will remain as the mid laner. Tabzz is returning as the ADC, and he will be joined by veteran Marcel "dexter" Feldkamp in the jungle. Jesper 'Jwaow' Strandgren made enough of an impression during his short time in the LCS on MYM to claim the top lane position, while Support will be taken over by Hampus 'promisq' Abrahamsson. Their new Support doesn't have much professional experience to speak of, but is a highly regarded player on the solo queue ladder, and the team felt he fit well enough with their goals to move forward with him. Patrick "Nyph" Funke will remain as the team's head coach.
This new lineup should keep fans awake
This will be a radically different team from the one that took to the Rift in the Spring Split, but as Fnatic has proven, that isn't always a bad thing. It was clear this team was in need of something drastic, now we'll just wait to find out if these moves were the ones Elements needed to get back on top.