Labrov wins LEC Summer 2020 rookie award, Mac is top coach

The rookie and coach of the split awards have been revealed for the 2020 LEC Summer Split as we move into the last weeks of the playoffs. 

The votes went in favor of Team Vitality’s Labros “Labrov” Papoutsakis for rookie of the split, while James “Mac” MacCormack won the coach of the split.

Both awards were highly competitive this split, but rookie of the split especially had several players who got to prove themselves on the biggest stage in Europe. The award was won by Vitality support Labrov, with only one point down to SK Gaming’s mid laner Dirk “ZaZee” Mallner in second place. 

While Vitality didn’t make the playoffs, the team still improved a lot compared to the spring split. Labrov was one of the big reasons for this improvement after being picked up from German side BIG in May. Labrov won the EU Masters 2019 Summer Split together with such familiar names as ZaZee and Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság, who both went on to succeed in the LEC as well. 

The coach of the split award went to MAD Lions’ Mac, who took his young team to great heights in the summer split. The team has fallen off a bit in the playoffs, but is still fighting in the lower bracket to reach the final. In second place we find Simon “fredy122” Payne from Rogue, who trailed Mac by a margin of just 10 points. 

Mac has been with MAD Lions since November 2019 and has had a great first year as head coach. He built a team with a lot of young talent that went on to surprise everyone in the spring split. In the summer split the team continued to improve, which led to the second seed in the playoffs. MAD Lions is yet to qualify for the 2020 World Championship, but they still have the chance to take Europe’s fourth spot. 

The votes were very close for these two rewards, with few points between the two winners and the runner-ups. Here are the top three for both awards with points awarded. 

Rookie of the split: 

• Vitality Labros “Labrov” Papoutsakis (95 points)
• SK Gaming Dirk “ZaZee” Mallner (94 points
• Vitality Aljoša “Milica” Kovandžić (49 points)

Coach of the split: 

• MAD Lions James “Mac” MacCormack (98 points)
• Rogue Simon “fredy122” Payne (88 points)
• FC Schalke 04 Dylan “Dylan Falco” Falco (51 points)