Jared Wynne 
Not many professional League of Legends players can claim to be near the top of the game in both competitive play and streaming, but Jankos is definitely one of those few.
Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski has progressed throughout his pro career towards being one of the best-known names in the game. And while much of that notoriety can be attributed to his successes as a competitor, he has also become one of the game’s most popular and acclaimed streamers.
Jankos starts his pro League of Legends career with H2K, ROCCAT
Jankos began his pro League of Legends career as a jungler in 2013. He bounced between a few different sides competing in Europe, most notably spending time with H2K Gaming. That roster of players would go on to play in the European League Championship Series, though without the H2K branding.
Instead, it was Team ROCCAT who Jankos and his teammates would represent going into the EU LCS in 2014. ROCCAT was able to string together some solid performances, but it wasn’t enough to qualify for international play, with ROCCAT narrowly missing out on the 2014 League of Legends World Championship. 2015 was more difficult for the European side, as they were nearly relegated and were rarely seen as a threat to win the league.
Jankos would then move on and rejoin H2K Gaming, though this time with a completely different roster. His time with H2K would see the Polish jungler reach a new level of success. H2K managed to qualify for the 2016 World Championship, making it all the way to the semifinals before losing in a one-sided sweep to Samsung Galaxy.
While some fans criticized the weaker path to the semifinals that H2K had traveled, there was still no questioning the final result of finishing among the top four teams at the World Championship, the biggest event on the League of Legends calendar.
For all of the team’s success in 2016, it wasn’t able to carry its form over in 2017. H2K missed out on the 2017 World Championship, and Jankos chose to move on. It would prove a wise decision, given his next destination.
Jankos achieves greatness with G2 Esports
Jankos became a star player recognized throughout the League of Legends world after joining G2 Esports, a team made up of some of the best talent in the game in Europe. Between 2018 and 2020, G2 was absolutely dominant in Europe, winning the EU LCS, and later the rebranded LEC, in five out of six splits.
Even more importantly, G2 was able to find unprecedented success for a European team in modern League of Legends. The team finished in the top four at both the 2018 and 2020 World Championship events, but its greatest achievements would come in 2019.
G2 managed to win the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, and in doing so became the first western team to win a major Riot-sanctioned international event in the modern game’s history with a full international field in attendance. This was followed by a second-place finish at the 2019 World Championship, which was also the best result by a western team in modern competitive play.
As his team achieved such success, so too did Jankos individually. Jankos was twice named the most valuable player of the LEC, first in the summer 2019 split, and then again in the spring 2020 split. These consecutive MVP awards instantly made Jankos one of the most acclaimed players in the history of European League of Legends.
But all things must come to an end. For Jankos and G2, that end was evident in 2021. After all of the squad’s great results both internationally and in Europe. G2 would fail to even qualify for an international event in 2021 as it struggled to compete against top European sides. G2 finished 3rd and 4th in the two LEC splits that year.
G2 returned to international play the following year at the 2022 League of Legends World Championship, but crashed out of the group stage with a disappointing 1-5 record. Jankos left G2 shortly after.
Jankos revitalized with Heretics and on Twitch
Jankos had already begun streaming more on Twitch while at G2, and he continued this trend after leaving the side. This remained the case even after he joined Team Heretics to continue his professional LoL career.
Team Heretics has struggled since Jankos’ arrival, finishing as one of the bottom teams in both of its LEC splits in 2023. But fans and analysts alike have continued to praise the jungler’s individual performance despite his team’s struggles.
Success on Twitch has proven more attainable for Jankos in modern times. He now boasts nearly 1.5 million followers on his Twitch channel. Fans and viewers enjoy his high-energy personality in combination with his high-level gameplay. Skill and charisma are both valuable traits on Twitch, and Jankos seems to have both in spades.
