Jake “Xmithie” Purchero is one of the best junglers, currently signed to North America’s new top team, Team Liquid. As a veteran, Xmithie started his career around early 2012, joining team APictureOfAGoose, a collection of high elo players who gained wide recognition from their win against Counter Logic Gaming, a behemoth in the North American scene at the time.
While Xmithie has been playing competitive League of Legends for over six years, joining a long list of teams including Team Vulcun, Complexity Black and Counter Logic Gaming, he has only gained large success recently. Xmithie’s career mainly picked up during his time with compLexity Black, where his performance led to CLG quickly snapping him up to be a part of their line-up.
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After spending two and a half years with CLG, Xmithie tasted success once again with his new team, Immortals. Immortals were able to unexpectedly secure second place in the 2017 NA LCS Summer Playoffs. This allowed them to qualify for the Worlds, however, they lost very early in the group stage, putting themselves in 14th-16th place.
Following a sub-par performance in Worlds, he left Immortals to join Team Liquid. This turned out to be a great decision, with Doublelift also returning to Liquid to lead the team after TSM had kicked him off in favour of the European duo bot lane.
While they had a slower than expected performance considering Liquid’s extremely packed line up, they still managed to claim 4th place in the 2018 Spring regular season, allowing them to qualify for the playoffs.
Xmithie and his team smashed the Spring playoffs, defeating every one of their opponents to claim first place. More recently, Xmithie and Liquid completely dominated both the NA LCS Summer Split’s Regular season and Playoffs. The regular season saw TL go undefeated with 12-6, as they demonstrated to be a top force. To cement their top spot, they had an extremely decisive win against Cloud9 in the Summer Playoff finals, going 3-0, an undoubted show of dominance.
While an extremely strong player and largely valued in the pro scene, Xmithie gets little attention even though he has had success with every team he has recently been in. There is no reason why Xmithie should be over shadowed by his teammates, his performance clearly showing he is a top talent.
Jake “Xmithie” Puchero began his LoL career as an AD carry main for APictureOfAGoose. His team showed up at the season 2 IEM Kiev Qualifiers, earning an invitation to the tournament and knocking out CLG in the process. However, right before the event, their support—LemonGoD—announced that he wouldn’t be able to attend the tournament because of family issues.
This prompted the team captain, Atlanta, to bring in his friend, cuRtoKy, as an emergency replacement. Atlanta decided to switch to the AD carry role since he assumed he’d have better synergy with cuRtoKy, which meant that Xmithie would have to move to the jungle. Xmithie agreed. In the end, APictureOfAGoose couldn’t make it to IEM Kiev, but Xmithie continued his career as a jungler.
Shortly thereafter, the entire lineup was acquired by mTw.NA. Almost a year later, mTw.NA sold its roster to Monomaniac Ferus, which was later bought out by Team FeaR. During this time, former Goose players achieved impressive results at online tournaments, taking first-place finishes at numerous Team SoloMid Invitationals. However, they struggled to replicate this success on stage.
Everything changed when a new organization entered the picture. That organization was Team Vulcun. They’d acquired Team FeaR’s lineup to play in the 2013 NA LCS Spring Split. Vulcun had a rough start, and they even had to make a mid-season roster change by bringing in Bloodwater to the support position. But it’s on this team that Xmithie finally made a name for himself. At the first glance, he wasn’t doing anything flashy, but through a combination of smart pathing and well-timed ganks he always made sure that his carries got ahead.
Vulcun ended up going 12-16 in their first NA LCS split and qualifying for the playoffs. There, they pulled off an upset against CLG and met TSM in the Semifinals. And while Team SoloMid proved too hard for them to handle, Vulcun bounced back with a 2-1 victory against Team Curse in the third place match.
Their summer went even better. With a 20-8 record, Vulcun skyrocketed to a second-place finish and secured a bye to the Semifinals. Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep the momentum going and fell 0-2 to TSM. Still, Vulcun picked up the slack and scored a 2-0 victory over Team Dignitas in the third place match, which was more than enough to earn an invitation to Worlds.
In the off-season, the team rebranded as XDG Gaming. Then, the organization performed one of the oddest role swaps in League of Legends history by moving Xmithie back to the AD carry role and turning Zuna into their jungler. This led to XDG losing a lot of early game pressure.
As a result, XDG had a hard time making anything happen in the 2014 Spring Split. With a measly 7-21 record, they finished the regular season dead-last and went down to the Promotion Tournament. There, they clashed with the up-and-coming LMQ lineup and lost 0-3. Within a single year, XDG went from being a Worlds contender to getting relegated out of the NA LCS.
Afterward, Xmithie stayed with the team for the 2014 NA CS season. But despite the fact that he switched back to the jungle, XDG fell in the first round of the playoffs.
Xmithie took a brief break and returned for the 2015 NA LCS Spring Split as a part of CLG. His gank-heavy playstyle turned out to be a perfect fit for a team with such dominant laners, and CLG took the competition by storm with a 12-6 record. However, the fact that they lost the tiebreaker to Cloud9 meant that CLG didn’t get a bye to the Semifinals. And while they had a very dominant showing in the regular season, CLG suffered a crushing defeat against Team Liquid in the Quarterfinals.
But they didn’t let that get to them. CLG came back even stronger in summer and breezed to the second-place finish with a 13-5 record. In the Semifinals, they dismantled Team Impulse and went on to face TSM. And even though TSM reigned supreme for several splits in a row, CLG scored a confident victory and secured their first NA LCS trophy.
CLG’s winning streak continued in the 2016 NA LCS Spring Split. They tore through the competition, securing another second-place finish over the regular season. In the Semifinals, CLG defeated Team Liquid in a close 5-game series. Their finals match against TSM also came down to the wire, but in the end, CLG managed to take the W and qualify for the 2016 MSI.
Following their 2016 MSI run, CLG entered the 2016 Summer Split with high hopes. But suddenly, the entire team faltered. They barely came fourth in the regular season, but their Quarterfinals victory against Team Liquid showed a glimmer of hope. Still, the following losses to TSM and Immortals put an end to their playoffs run. Fortunately, their success in spring meant they still qualified for the 2016 World Championship.
The 2017 NA LCS Spring Split brought even bigger disappointments. With a 10-8 record, they finished the regular season in fourth place. In the playoffs, they clashed with FlyQuest and lost in a close 5-game series. At the time, Xmithie was perceived as one of the weaker links of the team. And so, CLG decided to trade him over to Immortals.
Surprisingly enough, Xmithie found a lot of success on the struggling Immortals lineup. His playstyle was perfect for emphasizing the strength of his solo laners, and Xmithie propelled his team to a second-place finished. In the playoffs, Immortals 3-0’d CLG before falling 1-3 to TSM in the finals. Still, this result earned them their first Worlds ticket.
When Immortals weren’t accepted in the 2018 NA LCS season, Xmithie joined Team Liquid.
On Vulcun, Xmithie went to the 2013 World Championship. This was his first international tournament, and understandably, the team struggled against top-tier competition. Vulcun ended up going 3-5 in the group stage and failing to qualify for the playoffs.
He also took part in the Battle of the Atlantic event where Vulcun lost 0-2 to Gambit Gaming.
On CLG, Xmithie went to the 2015 World Championship. His team had a strong start with back-to-back victories against Flash Wolves and paiN Gaming, but they quickly lost steam and couldn’t secure any more wins. In the end, their 2-4 record wasn’t enough to advance from the group stage.
CLG also attended IEM Season 10 San Jose. There, they defeated Unicorns of Love and Jin Air Green Wings to clash with Origen in the finals. The European powerhouse proved too hard for CLG to handle, and they walked away with the silver medal.
In the beginning of 2016, CLG took part in the IEM Season 10 World Championship. However, they got knocked down to the loser’s bracket after falling short in their first game against SKT T1. Afterward, they were eliminated by Fnatic.
They came back stronger for the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational. CLG put on a clinic in the group stage, winning most of their games and qualifying for the knockout stage. There, they defeated Flash Wolves 3-1 and went on to face SKT T1 in the finals. And even though they couldn’t overcome this last hurdle, this was still one of the best international showings for an NA LCS team.
At the 2016 World Championship, CLG proved their worth by winning against ROX Tigers and G2 Esports in the group stage. Unfortunately, their losses to Albus Nox Luna led to a wildcard team outmuscling them in a fight for the final playoffs spot.
On Immortals, Xmithie went to the 2017 World Championship. His team showed a lot of promise after going 2-1 during the first week of the competition. But ultimately, Immortals were unable to keep the momentum going, and they were knocked out of the tournament with a 2-4 record.
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