Immortals has announced the first member of its 2020 team and it’s a blast from the past.
Jake “Xmithie” Puchero is rejoining his former organization. The North American jungler was part of the team in the 2017 NA LCS Summer Split. With Xmithie on its roster, Immortals finished in second place that split and went to compete in the 2017 League of Legends World Championship.
“Among all the LCS players Jake was the number one I was looking at building the OpTic 2019 roster, but he went to Team Liquid. 2 years later with much more experience we’re finally doing it. I’m super excited to work with him,” Immortals head coach Thomas “Zaboutine” Si-Hassen wrote on Twitter.
Xmithie, who won four consecutive domestic titles with Team Liquid, is among the best junglers in North American League of Legends. He brings experience and leadership to the team and is a strong foundation for Immortals in 2020.
The organization was forced out of LoL in 2017 when they were denied a spot in the LCS by Riot Games. They are set to return in 2020 after acquiring OpTic Gaming’s LCS franchise, and the plan is to start from scratch. Immortals released the players that were under contract with OpTic and are building a new roster.
Xmithie is a great addition to the team and someone that could attract others to join Immortals. According to some reports, French top laner Paul “sOAZ” Boyer, AD carry Johnny “Altec” Ru, and support Nickolas “Hakuho” Surgent will be joining the team next. It remains unclear who is going to be Immortals’ mid laner for 2020.
Xmithie split from Team Liquid after the organization decided to replace him with former Fnatic jungler Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen. The move drew criticism from some fans who question whether Broxah represents an upgrade from Xmithie.
Team Liquid’s AD carry Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng shared his opinion on a recent stream.
“It feels like Season 7 [Team SoloMid] when we had the best team. We had a team that more or less got along, was the best, still had potential to grow, and we were still all extremely motivated at the end. As everyone knows, it was a huge mistake to blow it up. It could be a mistake, that’s what I think,” Doublelift said.
Doublelift added that he would love to play again with Xmithie in 2020, even if they were constantly fighting about the game.
Xmithie is a solid jungler that took Team Liquid to new heights. Broxah enjoyed domestic success in a stronger region, but that might not be enough to make up for the synergy Liquid already had with Xmithie.
Answers will come when the LCS returns to action in 2020.
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