G2 Esports AD carry Rekkles will not return to the League of Legends team next year, sources familiar with that decision told Dot Esports.
G2 is now in the process of selling his contract, which ends in November 2023. Over the past couple of weeks, G2 has informed its players, staff, and others close to its League squad about Rekkles’ imminent departure, sources said.
The relationship between G2 and Rekkles is frayed after a season that saw the European dynasty fail to earn a spot in the World Championship for the first time since it qualified for the continent’s top league.
Rekkles was set to attend the 2021 World Championship group draw show on Sept. 22 to represent G2 as a special guest. But at the last minute, and as a result of tense negotiations between the two, the ADC didn’t participate, according to sources. Instead, G2 arranged for jungler Jankos to replace him.
With the relationship between Rekkles and G2 set to end, Team Vitality is one of the teams that’s expressed interest in the star ADC, according to sources. At first, G2 wasn’t willing to talk to other orgs while it was deciding the future of Rekkles. But after choosing to go in a different direction for next season, G2 was open to discuss the transfer of the 25-year-old, sources tell Dot Esports.
Rekkles’ future in pro League remains uncertain. His next team is undecided and no option has been discarded yet. Even China’s League Pro League could end up being his new home since there’s mutual interest in this happening, according to sources. North America and Europe are still big possibilities for Rekkles, though.
G2 is holding extensive ADC tryouts with several European regional league bot laners among the list, as reported by Dot Esports on Sept. 21. But a possible replacement for Rekkles has not been chosen yet.
G2 and Rekkles will part ways after a disappointing year in which they entered as the clear favorites in the LEC but ended up without a spot at Worlds. Rekkles’ move from Fnatic to G2 in November 2020 marked one of the largest transactions of that offseason when he replaced Perkz, who moved across the Atlantic to Cloud9. But G2 didn’t win the LEC in either split in 2021.
The German organization is expected to undergo a major restructuring this fall with top laner Wunder, support Mikyx, and head coach Grabbz also likely leaving the team, as reported by Dot Esports. G2 is expected to rebuild around mid laner Caps, who’s now signed through the end of 2023, and Jankos, its veteran jungler.
Update Sept. 29 10:55am CT: After publishing this report, Dot Esports learned more about the handling of Rekkles’ transfer to another team. G2 initially wasn’t open to negotiating with other organizations while the team was internally deciding what to do with the veteran ADC, sources tell Dot Esports. But after the team came to the decision to go in another direction for 2022, G2 was willing to talk with all other teams about potentially moving Rekkles, according to sources. This article has been updated to reflect this information.
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Published: Sep 28, 2021 10:59 am