Who is Velja? Introducing the least-known member of Los Ratones
Going over who Velja is, his LoL career, and his accomplishments
Yesterday’s roster announcement of Los Ratones, Caedrel’s newly-founded League of Legends team, has excited the LoL community. One of the 5 players, jungler Velja, is significantly less-known than the others. In this article we’ll go over who Velja is, his LoL career, and his accomplishments.
Veljko “Velja” Čamdžić, having also competed with the names “Veeljaa” and “VeljANevoljA”, was born in Serbia on the 22nd of March 2002. His earliest known competitive LoL activity was in 2019, playing for an orgless team called Turkish Transfers. They competed in the qualifiers of the Esports Balkan League, the official European Regional League for the Balkan region.
Velja made his ERL 1st division debut in the 2020 Spring Split, playing for Serbian team Level Up esports in the EBL. He then played for ASUS ROG ELITE in the EBL 2020 Summer Split.
In December 2020, Velja was banned for 5 months from the EBL alongside several of his teammates from Level Up esports. Their offense was being complicit in ringing that took place on the last match of the EBL 2020 Spring Split. He did not compete anywhere in the 2021 Spring Split, but returned for the EBL 2021 Summer Split and finished Top 4 with Split Raiders.
In 2022, Velja competed in an ERL outside the Balkans for the first time, joining Belgian team Ion Squad for the Benelux Elite Series. While there, his manager was Season 1 World Champion wewillfailer. He then returned to the EBL and joined the LoL team of Partizan, a massive Serbian sports club. His teammates there included former LEC midlaner Milica, who competed for Team Vitality in 2020 & 2021.
In the 2023 Spring Split, Velja competed in the 1st division of PG Nationals, the Italian ERL. However, his stint there lasted only 6 games as he had to leave the team “due to technical reasons”. For the 2023 Summer Split, he returned to the Balkans and had his most successful split yet. Joining Slovenian org Cyber Wolves, they made it to the final of the EBL, losing and finishing 2nd.
Velja most recent experience in the ERLs came in the 2024 Spring Split. He joined Ankora Gaming in the EBL, but left after just 6 games. In an announcement, he stated his decision to focus his stream instead of playing competitively:
“I decided to grind my stream instead of playing competitive for now, the decision had nothing to do with results. In the future I might come back to playing competitive again, but for now I'll give my all in the streaming space” - Velja
Velja’s decision quickly paid off. Only a month after the announcement, he was already averaging over 100 viewers per stream. His stream has kept growing since, currently averaging 306 viewers over the past 90 days.
On the 1st of July, Velja reached Rank 1 on the EUW solo queue ladder.
Velja is currently competing in the T-esports Championship Season 3, an unofficial tournament featuring multiple current & former professional players. His team is called Bad Lions and includes 2 more members of Los Ratones: Nemesis on midlane and Crownie on botlane. The rest of his teammates are toplaner iBo and support Raxxo, both Polish veterans. Tomorrow at 10:00 CET they’ll face TeamAxelent69, which includes former EU LCS jungler Djoko, for the grand final in Budapest.
Sources:
LosRatones on X (Twitter)
Velja on Leaguepedia
Asus Rog Elite’s Post on X (Twitter)
Competitive Ruling: Level Up Esports on Fortuna Esports
Split Raiders’ Post on X (Twitter)
ION SQUAD’s Post on X (Twitter)
Partizan Esports‘ Post on X (Twitter)
EKO Esports’ Post on X (Twitter)
Velja’s Post on X (Twitter)
Velja’s Post on X (Twitter)
Ankora Gaming’s Post on X (Twitter)
velja_lol on SullyGnome
TEC Season 3 Playoffs on Leaguepedia
my goat jgl!