Becoming a serious Worlds contender
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Luka “Perkz” Perković, the young Mid Laner from Croatia, has made quite a name for himself as the longest-standing member of the current G2 Esports lineup. The team’s most recent performance in the ongoing 2018 League of Legends World Championship is the organization’s highest achievement despite only making it to the top four of the tournament. Perkz may not have been the sole reason for his team’s sucess in Worlds 2018 but he has been a big factor for the organization’s overall success since their entry into the European League Championship Series (EU LCS) in 2016.
Perkz wowed the audiences at Worlds 2018 in their historic run from the Play-In stage to their exit in the Semifinals stage. However, he wasn’t always pulling off insane 1v3 plays and surviving since the beginning of his career. He may have been part of the squads that led to four consecutive EU LCS championships for G2, but he had a lot of growing to do to be part of one of the team’s that shook the very foundations of the world’s biggest international League of Legends tournament.
Making the Big Leagues
The Croatian Mid Laner found his start with an EU based organization named GSI Gaming mid-way through the 2014 season. He fought alongside several other budding EU League stars as they competed in DreamHack Summer 2014. Unfortunately, they were unable to advance past the groups tage, arguably Perkz’ first ever hurdle on becoming a fully fledged esports star.
Perkz would eventually find his way to Gamers2 after his brief stint with GSI Gaming, where he would spend most of the 2015 season aiming towards a qualification spot for the official EU League of Legends tournament. Shortly before the team’s official qualification for the EU LCS, the team renamed to G2 Esports and officially entered the league where they would go on to dominate the competition for two straight years against titans of the region like Origen and Fnatic.
G2 Esports, with Perkz manning the middle lane, claimed both spring and summer titles in the 2016 and 2017 seasons of the EU LCS in dominating fashion. G2 quickly established themselves as the best team in the EU region, but they consistently came up short in all of their international appearances prior to Worlds 2018.
Stumbling Blocks
Perkz drew flak from professional players, industry personalities, and League of Legends fans when he explicitly blamed his team’s inability to perform on their team’s apparent lack of practice. The mid laner shared his thoughts in a tweet on his personal account that the, “no practice really shows off!” This tweet came out after the team’s poor performance on the first day of the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational.
G2 Esports was quick to address the statement of their Mid Laner but the damage had already been dealt. Perkz had effectively sullied the image of a rising League of Legends squad in a swift moment following a one-sided defeat at the hands of Taiwan’s Flash Wolves.
In 2017, G2 Esports would soon find themselves relegated to the sidelines at Worlds 2017 where the spotlight was dominated by mostly Fnatic and the rising Misfits. Perkz would become the only member to stay on the team’s roster heading into the 2018 season leaving the fate of the team and the organization in a precarious state.
Perkz: Remastered
Perkz would run into the longest downhill streak for G2 Esports across the 2018 season of League of Legends. The team managed to finish second in the Spring Split behind Fnatic with a commendable 11-7 standing. However, the would go on to lose in 0-3 sweep to Fnatic for the 2018 Spring title, ending their four-championship win streak. Things were looking bleak for the once dominant EU LCS squad as they continue to dip in the standings even in the league’s 2018 Summer Split. This time, G2 was locked in a three-way tie with other teams for second place and then go on to be unceremoniously eliminated in the 2018 EU LCS Summer Playoffs Quarterfinals in a 0-3 defeat at the hands of the Misfits.
G2 would only find their chance to bounce back in the Regional Finals of the EU LCS, the last chance qualifier for the region to make it to the Worlds 2018 stage. Perkz and his new G2 team managed to take down both Splyce and FC Schalke 04 in the playoffs gauntlet to secure the third and final seed for EU at Worlds 2018.
Perkz is responsible for some of the biggest hype plays in Worlds and even against some of the world’s toughest teams. Perkz’ ability to consistently dive in an outnumbered clash and come out within an inch his life and manage to walk away with at least one kill to his name is nothing short of legendary. The Croatian Mid Laner has come a long way from the brash and arrogant disaster tweeter of 2016. G2 Esports has stuck with Perkz through his many mishaps in the past and he has delivered one of the greatest feats for the entire organization.
Perkz’ Worlds 2018 journey may have ended as Invictus Gaming trashed G2 Esports in a 3-0 Semifinals sweep, but the plays from the G2 Mid Laner have been immortalized in the hearts of true League of Legends fans. He is one of the youngest and most talented players to ever hit Summoner’s Rift and it is only his third competitive season, we can only imagine just how much Perkz (and G2 Esports) can rise.
