The new semi-pro team ‘Yellow Stripes’ will compete in the League of Legends Open Tour 2022 and benefit from Team Vitality and adidas’ unrivalled performance infrastructure, training alongside the likes of Perkz and Alphari

Team Vitality is pleased to reveal its new semi-pro League of Legends roster for 2022, in partnership with adidas. Yellow Stripes is made up of some of the most promising rising stars in League of Legends who will compete in the 2022 League of Legends Open Tour France. The new team will be powered by the same performance staff and facilities as Team Vitality pro players competing at the highest level to unlock their full potential. As main sponsor of Yellow Stripes for 2022, adidas will provide world class support to the team, including designing a bespoke jersey and a professional athlete, as a mentor to accompany the team throughout the year, give advice from his career and provide all the experience a young team needs to get started.

The Yellow Stripes roster is made up of:

• Matias “matias” Manchin Opheltes, France, 21 years old, AD Carry
  • Long-time competitor who has been playing League of Legends since season 5, and took part in the competitive season in the Portuguese League in 2021
• Alexis “Artoria” Diebold, France, 19 years old, Mid Laner 
  • Played competitively in the France open tour in 2020 before doing a split at MCES Italy this summer and it is his goal to reach Worlds.
• Lorenzo “Linkkey” Giorgiutti, France, 22 years old, Support, 
  • Played League of Legends competitively since he was 16 and went pro in 2020
• Julian “eaRyz” Wehinger, France, 21 years old, Jungler
  • Began competing in League of Legends full-time in 2021 following successful performances in Open Tour France in 2019 and 2020
• John “Sotsy” Sicre, France, 23 years old, Top Laner
  • Began competing in League of Legends in 2019 and has since performed well in both the Nordic UKCL and Open Tour Benelux

The team will be coached by Benjamin “Fara” Stoffel and seasoned League of Legends caster and content creator Martin “Krok” Berthelot will act as team manager. The team will have full access to Team Vitality performance facilities including V.Hive, their cutting-edge public esports complex, V.Performance in the Stade de France, and the Berlin coaching house. Yellow Stripes are the third Team Vitality League of Legends roster, joining the newly revealed LEC super team and LFL squad.

Yellow Stripes will make their stage debut on January 29th when the League of Legends Open Tour France begins, the annual semi-pro year-long competition, allowing rising stars to benefit from the environment of top tier pro LAN competition. The Open Tour France gives the next generation of pro players the opportunity to graduate to division 2, and be in with a slight chance to be recruited to the LFL.

“We are proud to invest resources into the amateur scene. This project is a unique opportunity for these young players to learn and grow into what we hope will be a great sporting career in the future. They have challenges ahead of them, but we have every ambition to get them to the final of the Open Tour.” Said Fabien “Neo” Devide, Co-Founder and Esports Director, Team Vitality. “We’re delighted to have a partner in adidas who is not just interested in having their brand represented on the biggest stages in esports, but are committed to helping develop and support the pros of tomorrow”

“True to our belief that through sport we have the power to change lives, we are very proud to participate to this program. adidas supports all athletes who want to make a difference in the way they play, regardless of their sports. Launching ‘Yellow Stripes’ initiative with Team Vitality is rooted in our brand DNA and in the way we want to challenge sports industry codes.” said Sylvain Bouches, VP Director Brand for adidas France.

Yellow Stripes marks the latest collaboration from Team Vitality and adidas in one of the longest standing partnerships in esports. adidas was the first sports kit supplier to invest in the French esports market with Team Vitality in 2017, and together they have created the first-ever esports sneaker, the VIT.01, which sold out worldwide within a week, and created the first sports jersey especially for an esports team. To capture the progress of Yellow Stripes, the brands will collaborate on an eight-episode documentary series following the teams’ progress in the Open Tour.