Thomas "Kirei" Yuen - Team Dignitas

First, let’s talk about Kirei. His career started with the Dutch organisation LowLandLions, which managed to upset multiple teams in the 2015 Challenger Series Spring split and finished second overall. They were the only team to successfully take a game off Origen in the entire split. Back then no one would’ve suspected it, but nowadays this old LLL lineup has been proven to be one of the biggest and most influential talent farms in recent EUCS history.

This lineup collapsed between splits and all the players went on to join other Challenger Series teams. Kirei split playtime with Joachim "betongJocke" Rasmussen on Denial Esports halfway through the next split and eventually completely replaced him for the playoffs. It was with this team where Kirei found his biggest success yet, sporting a ridiculous 25.5 KDA during the regular season. He went on to deliver one of the most dominant jungle performances in EUCS history against Dignitas.EU in the playoffs. The series went to Game 5, which Denial ultimately had to forfeit due to an alleged DDoS attack. This frustrating loss was followed by a crushing loss to G2 Esports. Nevertheless, Kirei had shown the potential to become one of Europe’s best and was immediately approached by NA LCS' Team Dignitas to start as their jungler next split.

Kirei had already impressed viewers at IEM Cologne, outperforming legendary Jungler Baek "Swift" Dae-Hoon and being the main force behind the Dignitas win in the first game of the set. Even though they lost the set 1 - 2, Kirei ended the tournament with the highest Kill Participation amongst all other Junglers with roughly 80%.

He is the kind of Jungler who takes over the entire early game and creates advantages wherever he can, he pressures his lanes so often and so hard that he can win the game for his team by himself. Having shown a preference for the Spider Queen ever since his competitive debut, Kirei is most known for his Elise. The fast clear time, strong single target stun and damage fit his style perfectly, making him able to play aggressively and ensure kills for his team. But Kirei is far from a one-trick pony; while his Elise might have gotten him the most praise, he can put up a similar performance with champions like Rek’Sai or Rengar.

Kirei is, simply put, one of the greatest talents to come out of Europe, he has decent experience, great mechanics and has outperformed nearly every opponent he played in recent history. His aggressive, carry-oriented style has impressed many viewers of the European Challenger Series and is sure to impress the North American crowd this split. The young Dutch player has a bright future ahead of him, seeing him develop in Dignitas and observing his future career will be one of the most interesting parts of the upcoming season.

Luka "PerkZ" Perkovi? and Glenn "Hybrid" Doornenbal - G2 Esports

PerkZ has been getting attention for a long time now, often praised as the next big European midlane talent. There was only one factor holding him back -- his age. PerkZ recently turned 17, the minimum age required to compete in the LCS, and is now ready to start his career proper with a bang. He previously played for the rumored Challenger scene “Super-Team” that Gamers 2 tried to build, which ended up losing to Team Nevo in the Qualifiers. Afterwards, he went on to join Millenium as they tried to rebuild their League of Legends division, again failing to qualify this time by not making Top 5 in the Ranked 5s ladder in time. But even though his past career hasn’t been successful, PerkZ was always respected for his showings in scrims. He went on to rejoin Gamers 2 when they were rebuilding for the 2015 Summer Split of the EUCS. It would be on this team where PerkZ lived up to his potential and delivered great performances. He was arguably the best midlaner in EUCS by the end of the split, having the highest damage per second across the entire league. He dealt the majority of Gamers 2’s damage and was  easily their main threat.

Now, with the team rebranding to G2 Esports and adding former LCK talent to the roster, he is expected to perform even better. In his first 4 games in this current EULCS split he has shown great promise, sporting flashy plays and solokilling Isaac "xPePii" Flores, who was considered a great Midlaner last split, multiple times. His stage debut on Ahri against Elements was especially impressive, with him solokilling Jeremy "Eika" Valdenaire multiple times and translating his advantage into global map pressure by roaming the entire map efficiently. He has shown that he can get an advantage and that he can carry with it.

If one wants to believe the mythos of European Midlaners, then Perkz is the proof you were looking for -- his potential is immense and his raw mechanical talent is incredible. PerkZ might be the next world-class midlaner out of Europe.

He is not the only talented European in G2 Esports though -- their support player Hybrid has shown great promise. Similar to Kirei, he played in the LowLandLions lineup which went on to deliver one of the most surprising performances ever in their debut split. After that team parted ways, he was rumored to replace Hampus "promisQ" Abrahamsson on the LCS team Elements halfway through the 2015 Summer Split, but in the end it was Patrick "Nyph" Funke starting for the team. Afterwards, Hybrid ended up joining the Challenger Series team Gamers 2 as they were trying to find a replacement for their former support Aleksi "Hiiva" Kaikkonen. Having joined the team he immediately found more success, winning both games against heavy favorites Dignitas EU. Soon after, the team would pick up former LCS jungler Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek and eventually evolve into the best Gamers 2 roster we had seen up to that point.

Hybrid himself played a major role in the team, performing well on engage and peel champions. He is best known for a strong laning phase, often winning lane with AD-Carries who play rather passive laning phases.

His Thresh is something his LCS opponents should fear, often creating a huge advantage for his lane partner and creating picks through the latter parts of the game. But Hybrid isn’t limited to that, he performs just as well on Janna, a champion with a completely different focus. He was one of the most complete players in the entire EUCS, playing many champions and styles to a high level.

Support-talent in Europe has looked pretty bleak recently, not many promising new names have shown up and many experienced players quit or just became worse and worse. Hybrid has been the shining light during this time and hopefully not the last great Support talent out of Europe.

Chres "Sencux" Laursen and Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup - Splyce

Splyce is the new brand-name of the recently promoted team Dignitas EU who finished first in the 2015 Summer Split of the European Challenger Series. They kept most of the roster identical, only adding a new jungler in Jonas "Trashy" Andersen, still keeping the roster fully Danish.

The roster started out as SK Prime in January of 2015 but quickly joined UK-based organisation Dignitas, having a mediocre first split in the European Challenger Scene with a european roster containing Ram "Brokenshard" Djemal. The team then decided to restructure and form a full Danish lineup with Brokenshard switching to a coaching position. The team would go on to add ex-LCS support Nicolai "Nisbeth" Nisbeth and jungle prodigy Dennis "Obvious" Sorensen to fill the remaining spots. This Danish lineup proved much more successful, only dropping games in the very last week of the split and placing first in the playoffs, earning a LCS spot. With Dignitas already having a team in the north american LCS they had to sell one, it ended up being the European one which is now known as Splyce.

During their first European Challenger Series Split a trend showed, the European Dignitas EU would win all their games on the back of young Danish midlaner Sencux. His performances had been outstanding and he was widely considered one of the best midlaners to compete in the 2015 spring split. When Sencux got an advantage he ran away with it and completely carried the game, his impressive performances on champions like Ahri or Zed made him stand out from all the other midlane talent.

Sencux was uncontested as the best rookie midlaner in Europe, until the next split. In the new Dignitas Lineup Sencux performed just as well and even had a strong AD-Carry to back him up, but his throne was challenged by PerkZ and they went on to develop the greatest rivalry in EUCS history. While his start to the new LCS season left a lot to be desired it’s very likely that he will return to his previous form after warming up to the stage. With the team now living in a teamhouse and being coached in person, viewers could already see glimpses of his high ceiling in their last match against Roccat, where he ended with a 5/0/6 KDA on his trademark Ahri.

Sencux has shown a wide champion pool, great mechanical play and the ability to carry games, if he finds his old form he is sure to be the next Danish midlane star.

While many viewers enjoyed PerkZ and Sencux clashing in the midlane, the unsung hero of Dignitas EU was their AD-Carry Kobbe. While many focused on Sencux, Kobbe consistently put up good performances and straight-up carried at times. He was praised before joining Dignitas EU and was part of Gamers2 and Millennium when both orgs were trying to rebuild, before ultimately joining the Danish team. Kobbe has been known to prefer AD-Carries with high burst damage potential like Corki or Lucian. His playstyle has always been explosive, playing a passive lane and then effectively cleaning up skirmishes and fights. His contribution to Dignitas EU is often underappreciated, it might be because of the meta in which Sivir was often picked and AD-Carries had less impact. Another reason might be the very flashy performances of his teammate Sencux who often steals the spotlight, but Kobbe’s improvement should not be ignored. He has shown to have the talent to become one of the greatest AD-Carries in Europe, he will definitely make an impact in the 2016 Season.

The European Challenger Scene talent stream seems to never run dry. No matter how many players go overseas or retire new talent always replaces them. This is the real strength Europe has, the talent pool seems near infinitely deep and never fails to impress. New names keep rising to challenge the veterans, the European Challenger Series has once again produced highly promising talents you should definitely keep an eye on during the upcoming season