Toplaner Janik "JNX" Bartels has reached a verbal agreement with SK Gaming in the LEC, sources tell Sheep Esports on Thursday. JNX will take over the spot left by Joel "Irrelevant" Miro Scharoll, who has just reached a verbal agreement with Team BDS earlier this offseason. Toplaners Kyeong "Photon" Gyu-tae and Adam "Adam" Maanane were also considered for the position. Both of those players have yet to find a team for next year at the time of writing this article.

This move marks the return of JNX to the LEC after two years in the ERL, as well as his return to SK Gaming, with whom he played for five years in both the LEC and Prime League. He now faces the difficult task of filling in the shoes of Irrelevant, who has interest from several LEC teams this offseason.

JNX made his first LEC appearance in the Summer of 2019 when he was still playing as a midlaner and was promoted from the academy (SK Prime) to replace Choi “Pirean” Jun-sik. He stayed with the team until the Summer of 2022, but his best result after playing for 3 years in the league was only 6th place in the Spring of 2021. In 2023, he returned to SK Prime and won the Summer split.

He left the organization in the offseason and joined BDS Academy in the LFL, where he had the best year of his career to date. As Spring finalists, they were overturned by Karmine Corp Blue (KCB) but got their revenge in the Summer split, dominating both the regular season and playoffs, where they defeated KCB in the grand final. JNX played a major role in this success, setting the record for most kills by a toplaner in a regular season with 82 kills, breaking the previous record of 79 held by Adam.

The best toplaner in ERLs

"I felt like, in order to prove myself worthy of LEC again, I needed to show up in the LFL because it's generally considered as a stronger region, and I can tell it is a stronger league for sure" stated the German toplaner back in February in his interview with Sheep Esports. After dominating in LFL he and his team maintained their insane momentum and went on to claim the EMEA Masters trophy in Munich in Summer, marking the first major title of JNX's career and immortalizing him as the current best toplaner in ERLs.

JNX was statistically the best toplaner in LFL all year long, earning a rating of 78/100 according to Sheep Stats. He leads the charts in most categories such as KDA, average CSM, DMG/Min, and Gold/Min. His champion pool is also extremely wide, as he has been picking some Nasus, Varus, and a Vayne through the EMEA Masters tournament, with whome he has not lost a single game. He can fill all the roles needed and has a high clutch factor to 1v5 some teamfights if his team requires him to do so.

He now has a second chance to put everything he worked on this year into practice and prove his worth once again in the LEC. As previously reported by Sheep Esports, he will be playing alongside Steven "Reeker" Chen, his midlaner from this year at BDS Academy, as well as Ismaïl "ISMA" Boualem, who remains with SK Gaming next year.

For more roster changes, don't forget to check out our Transfers Hub.