EU LCS Rookie of the Week: Eika

Elements is used to having a world-class mid laner on their roster. When Froggen left the team (and Europe) to work with former NBA player Rick Fox on his new NA LCS team Echo Fox, fans grew concerned. But if the European region is good for anything, it's nurturing new outstanding mid-lane talent. With Jérémy "Eika" Valdenaire on the team, Elements may have found one of the next great European mid laners.

Expectations were low for Elements coming into the 2016 Season. With a completely new roster, there were question marks over whether the team could compete against the likes of Fnatic, Origen, and fellow newcomers Team Vitality. But here we are at the end of Week 2 and Elements are sitting at the top of the standings toe-to-toe with strong teams like G2, H2K, and the Unicorns of Love. From this precarious position at the top of the pile, Elements have a great view of fan-favourites Fnatic and Origen below them at 6th and 7th, respectively.

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This upward momentum comes after wins against Roccat and Giants in Week 2, during which Eika showed off his abilities on Morgana and Lux. These are two champs who are relatively uncommon for the mid lane in the recent meta, particularly in the LCS, thanks to relatively low damage output to other strong mid champs. With remarkable use of the pair's skillshot snares, Eika was able to get picks on the enemy team and swing team fights in Elements' favour.

It wasn't just Eika's clutch skill shots that makes him Rookie of the Week, though. He's been a big proponent of taking Frost Queen's Claim into mid lane, a strategy that's become pretty popular after the item's new active ability was added. Its heat-seeking spooky ghosts are making it easy to spot the closet support-players as more and more mid laners are taking advantage of the extra crowd control. A little extra coin in the pocket doesn't hurt, either.

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Eika's ascent to the LCS has been a long time coming. He was brought onto the newly formed team Nevo roster back in January 2015 and had high hopes of making it to the EU LCS for the Summer Split via the EU Challenger Series. During this time, Eika got his first professional pentakill while playing in the Challenger Series Qualifier against team Ragnarok. Even more impressively, it was on a heavily mechanical champion -- Azir.

But Eika is no stranger to complicated champs. One of his favourites is Zed and, while he's keeping it simple so far with Ryze and Viktor in addition to Morgana and Lux, we can't wait for him to field a tricky pocket pick.

Through all this he was also a substitute mid laner for the Unicorns of Love, so it's clear Elements isn't the first LCS team to have their eye on him. Eika eventually left Gamers2 after sadly coming fourth in the 2015 Challenger Series Spring Playoffs and remained teamless until picked up by Elements at the start of this year.

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His performance in the last weeks shows a marked improvement over his days at Gamers2 and demonstrates how worthy he is to finally be a player in the EU LCS.

Facing off against established EU LCS lane opponents like Betsy and xPePii is a daunting prospect for a rookie player, but it's a challenge he overcame with aplomb last week, earning the 6th highest number of Fantasy LCS points out of all NA and EU LCS players with a healthy 6/5/20 KDA, which should help improve his confidence as the season continues.

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With more practice and experience on the LCS stage, this young mid laner should have no problem reaching his full potential. Having said that, the real test will come when Elements come face to face with some of the heavier hitters that surround them at the top of the standings.

Can Eika take on the Unicorns of Love's Fox and Origen's PowerOfEvil this week? Find out during Elements' next games at 9pm CET on Thursday and 6pm CET on Friday to find out.

You can stay up to date with Eika by following him on Twitter and Facebook. You can also watch him play from time to time on his Twitch Stream.

Don't forget to check out last week's EU Rookie of the Week, G2's Trick.