Player profile: Perkz

Perkz currently performs the duties of a mid laner, where he specializes in using mage champions such as Ryze, Orianna, Syndra or Azir; he is also capable of playing assassin champions such as LeBlanc or Akali, although it is not common to see him with this type of characters.

Aggressive in lane, it is very common for Perkz to initiate duels en each competitive game he participates in. Perkz is also famous for his farming abilities, game aspect at which he often outperforms most of his rivals. A natural-born leader, Perkz tends to carry the team behind his back when things go awry thanks to his good macro perception of the game and his crucial shot-calling and decision-making skills.

With the arrival of Caps to G2 in 2019 Perkz changed his role to ADC, where he proved he also knew how to make his rivals submit to his priority in lane. Perkz mostly employed champions like Xayah, Kaisa and Ashe.

He returned to play as a midlaner during the spring split of 2020, but by summer he again ceded this position to Caps. Finally, with his migration to North America he returned yet again to play mid.

History

Perkz´s career in competitive League of Legends started with GSI Gaming, a small organization that did not reach the year of life but which nevertheless managed to foster great future players such as Steelback or P1noy. By that time the Croat player only stood out in Solo Queue games, which nevertheless put him on Ocelote´s radar for his team project of Gamers 2.

During the summer of 2015, with the mínimum age to enter LCS yet to be met, Perkz was already earning his place among the very best. Alongside Gamers2 he won the summer split of the Challenger Series, positioning third in the playoff and winning the subsequent qualifier.

In 2016, already 17 years old, Perkz landed in the LCS as the most celebrated rookie in G2. In his first year he revolutionized the mid lane paradigm, imposing a particularly aggressive and unpredictable style of his own which led his team to winning the spring and summer playoffs. Unfortunately, G2 was unable to perform at an international level, getting fifth place at the MSI and falling last in the world championship group stage.

By 2017 the role of Perkz at G2´s helm was already acknowledged by the fans. Perceived as the team to beat, G2 closed off the spring split with 12 victories and only a single defeat in their last game of the season at the hands of Roccat. Predictably, they won the playoff, returning to the MSI stronger this time, though they did not manage to win against an all-powerful SKT in the final.

During the summer split G2 kept its dominance and, despite ending the season in second place, Perk´s team imposed itself over Misfits. At Worlds they again fell in the group stage, but this time with strong hopes that the next year they would return to again play in it. In all of Europe it seemed as if G2 was the only team capable of putting up a fight to advance past the initial group stage at Worlds.

2018 was the year Fnatic broke G2´s rampaging streak by snatching away the first playoff since G2 made its LCS landing. By summertime Ocelote´s team looked different from that of previous years, and the players came close to not qualifying for the world cup; still, they did.

Having closed a bad season in Europe, it turned out that G2 had a good international showing. Surprisingly G2 advanced to the semifinals.

With renewed convictions and the much-talked about arrival of Caps 2019 became the year of G2, which passed down in competitive League of Legends history as the year of absolute prevalence for them. With Caps in mid Perkz had to change to ADC; he successfully showed he could play a satisfactory role in the lower lane. With each team member acting as an individual powerhouse on their own, the inevitable happened: G2 won the spring split and summer split along with their respective playoffs; it won the MSI against Team Liquid, which signified the first international victory by a European team since the very first Worlds; and it was only to FunPlus Phoenix that G2 yielded in a hurtful Worlds defeat which left the Croat player crying out of sheer frustration.

In 2020 the European hegemony of G2 remained intact. Ocelote´s boys took without much difficulty the spring playoff and the summer one. Outside Asia expectations were that this year would be the one that had been so hoped for. Finally, a team with Europe´s best was surely destined to win Worlds.

And it may very well have been the case had South Korean DAMWON Gaming not defeated them in the semifinals. Perkz felt especially guilty of the result as his level of play in the bot lane had notably deteriorated. Believing himself a hindrance for his team as ADC he ceded his position in G2 and signed for Cloud9, returning to his desired mid lane role, only this time in America.

2021 marked the start of a new journey in Perkz´s career. After winning 8 times the European title he crossed the Atlantic to, on his first try, win the NA LCS. Decent results followed him throughout the rest of the year, Cloud9 positioning itself among the four first teams in both the playoff and summer split and reaching quarter finals at Worlds.

The year on America did not last, however, as soon he transferred to Team Vitality in Europe, getting ready for a 2022 which was poised to be full of excitement.

Perkz‘s results during 2022 can be considered mediocre for his standards. Vitality would get a sixth, fifth and seventh place at the Spring LEC, the Spring playoff and the Summer split. During both splits Vitality would have a 50% win ratio.

Despite the recent setbacks, Perkz is still a young man. He has become one of the most awarded and celebrated players in western League of Legends; it is due to his surprising record and his versatility that all enthusiasts of the MOBA created by Riot should admire and praise his quality and talent as a competitor.