Jokes of missed Nidalee spears aside, let’s take a look at one of Europe’s most experienced and winningest junglers, Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski.
Europe has produced a lot of incredibly talented players who are, until this day, competing among the best in Europe and the world. No European team has known as much success as G2 Esports has. Beginning in the European Challenger Series, they won the EU LCS the same year they qualified for it, collecting European trophies and gradually making a name for themselves internationally. They really impressed the world when they won MSI 2019 and reached the top four at Worlds two times in a row, even playing in a final once. All players of that line-up are key but there is one that came a long way.
Jankos, the jungler for G2 Esports, had a long career before even joining the G2-squad. It even looked like he had already reached the peak of his career at some point but he showed us that he is not even close to quitting. A European legend on his own, he has quite the story. Today we will look at where he came from and how he became one of the best junglers.
Going through the early grind
Even though Jankos started playing League of Legends in Season One, he is mostly remembered for entering the competitive scene by recommendation of IWillDominate. Previously, Jankos played on the North American server and had to deal with ping issues, but when he swapped to Europe he really started grinding. He was noticed by Team Mistral and tried to qualify for the EU LCS in Season 3 with other Polish players like Celaver. Unfortunately for him, it would still take some time before he reached the EU LCS. He went on to play ESL Go4LoL tournaments to get his name out there. That is exactly what happened as H2k-Gaming approached him to play with future superstars like Overpow and Vander.
This H2k-Gaming roster was completed with Celaver and Xaxus to compete at various tournaments. After some struggles, the team was renamed to Kiedyś Miałem Team, and this team would compete in DreamHack Winter 2013 but most noticeably would participate in the Spring Promotion for EU LCS. This is where they beat Ninjas in Pyjamas to take their spot in the league.
The European League of Legends Championship Series
The KMT roster signed with Team ROCCAT to compete in the EU LCS Season 4. Jankos would know a lot of success in his first split, securing a top four at the end of the regular spring split. This would ensure their participation in the play-offs where they would plateau in the semi-finals. However, this was a good start for the Polish jungler as this was only the beginning of his career. His team would falter in the next split, consistently being in the bottom three of the standings. It was only in week 8 that they started climbing back on the performance of Jankos on Lee Sin and Vi. He became the MVP of that week and clinched Team ROCCAT a play-offs spot, staying alive for a chance to appear at Worlds.
Even though they surprised everyone by making an impressively competitive run at the play-offs, they lost out against Fnatic and SK Gaming ending fourth overall. Season 5 was less kind to Jankos and his team, mostly fighting for their spot in the EU LCS. In the second half they made a deeper run, but it was not meant to be and Jankos stayed home from Worlds once again.
H2k-Gaming to G2 Esports
Up and until now this does not look like the story of a legend but it is in 2016 that everything turned around. After being a successful jungler on mediocre rosters, it was his time to shine. He joined H2k-Gaming again and they got to play at IEM Season X – Cologne. This showed us how strong the team including Odoamne, Ryu, FORG1VEN and Vander could be. They beat teams like Cloud9 and only lost to the eventual winners Ever in the semifinals. With this roster, he went on to consistently stay in the top four of Europe again and qualified for the EU LCS 2016 Spring & Summer play-offs. Off the back of strong gameplay from Jankos, they would secure their Worlds spot and even make a top four run there. This looked like Jankos had finally reached his full potential, but what if we told you he hadn’t?
After staying at H2k-Gaming for some time, he left the team to join G2 Esports. A new up-and-coming organization that had already shown greatness in the Challenger Series. They dominated Europe for a year and Jankos had finally been fully unlocked. With Wunder, Perkz, Hjarnan and Wadid at his side they only came second to Fnatic in Europe but made an equally deep run at Worlds like he did with H2k-Gaming. However, you could feel that there was still more potential in this line-up and after some changes they tried again the next year. This would be the peak of Jankos’ career, winning MSI 2019 and playing the Worlds 2019 Finals. Right now, I’d say he is still the best jungler in Europe but has gotten new competitors over time. With the LEC going into play-offs this week, we will see how he matches up against Inspired. A new Polish jungler that wants to follow in his footsteps.
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Jankos has quite the career. Starting off on the NA server, winning MSI and reaching a Worlds final. Make no mistake, he is far from done. G2 Esports and Jankos still want to win a Worlds title and they are closer than ever. With the addition of the last EU superstar Rekkles on their roster, they are on their way to dominate. We know Jankos as a goofy, down to earth but funny person but he has shown us that he competes with the best without breaking any sweat. You can follow his journey this Saturday as he faces off against Schalke 04 in the LEC 2021 Spring Playoffs.
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