French League of Legends organization Team Vitality announced today that it is retaining two members of its Worlds roster. Top laner Lucas “Cabochard” Simon-Meslet and support Jakub “Jactroll” Skurzyński will have their contracts extended two years.
Vitality is also under contract with star mid laner Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro and bot laner Amadeu “Attila” Carvalho through the 2019 season, per Riot’s global contract database. This move means that four-fifths of the team’s Worlds roster will be back together to compete in the new LEC. Head coach Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi was also extended last year through 2020.
Vitality stunned many fans with a surprise playoff showing in its first competitive split last spring. Unlike some organizations who fought their way to the top of European league with veteran players, Vitality relied a bunch of rookies. Those rookies, Jiizuke in particular, surpassed expectations all year.
But it was really the addition of a veteran, jungler Mateus “Kikis” Szkudlarek, who jump-started the team in the middle of the Summer Split. Playing in just half of the team’s games, Kikis still managed to make himself an MVP candidate by organizing his younger teammates and helping them close out wins. He remains a free agent as of publishing, so Vitality fans will have to wait and see if the organization is committed to running the same roster back for its first year in the franchised LEC.
There are a lot of big changes happening to European teams this offseason, but Vitality seems committed to the players that got it to Worlds in the first place.
