MAD Lions finalise their Academy roster ahead of 2020 Spring Split
MAD Lions, previously known as Splyce, have unveiled its new League of Legends Academy lineup this Monday, which will feature five young and talented members, who will compete in the Spring Split of SuperLiga Orange.
Since their rebranding from Splyce to MAD Lions, the Spanish organization has introduced a handful of changes to their League of Legends team, which will enter 2020 LEC with a completely rebuilt roster in a bid to contest the top spots.
The organization managed to retain Andrei "Orome" Popa and Marek "Humanoid" Brázda from Splyce and signed three new members in former mousesports jungler Zhiqiang "Shadow" Zhao and support Norman "Gistick" Kaiser, as well as former BIG ADC Matyáš "Carzzy" Orság.
While MAD Lion's changes to their main roster look very promising, it was their Academy team – MAD Lions Madrid, who took all the spotlight this Monday, when the Spanish organization unveiled its new lineup.
https://twitter.com/MADLions_LoLES/status/1214154649420337152
In the top lane, MAD Lions Madrid will field former SK Gaming Prime player Jorge "Werlyb" Moreno-Torres, who has just recently played in the 2019 ESL Meisterschaft. He also gained experience playing at the highest level while he represented SK Gaming during 2019 LEC Spring Split, where he finished fifth-sixth.
Joining him in the jungle will be Luis "Koldo" Pérez who previously played for MAD Lions Academy and later left for x6tence, where he spent the entirety of the last season, before returning back to MAD Lions.
Jørgen "Hatrixx" Elgåen will continue his career with MAD Lions as the team's starting mid laner. Hatrixx joined MAD Lions in May 2019 when he took over the role of the coach and later in October 2019 opted to return to the Rift.
In the bottom lane MAD Lions Madrid will field ADC Victor "Flakked" Lirola and support Olivier "Prime" Payet. Prime joined MAD Lions in May 2019, having before played for Splyce Vipers, while Flakked previously played for S2V Esports.
While the majority of the team besides Werlyb lacks serious experience in top leagues, the roster is filled with very talented individuals who possess immense potential for growth and are expected contest the top spots in the SuperLiga Orange2020.
As the team's head coach, MAD Lions Madrid signed former EU LCS jungler for SK Gaming and Natus Vincere Alvar "Araneae" Aleñar, who started his coaching career in June 2014, when he took over the role as a head coach at Fnatic. He later coached Baskonia eSports, Origen and ThunderX3 Baskonia, before joining MAD Lions in August 2017.
Assisting him will be Jesús "Falco" Rubio, who has previously played as a support for G2 Vodafone, Giants Only The Brave, ThunderX3 Baskonia and MAD Lions, before moving to coach position in October 2019.
With a solid core of players and coaches who have been with the organization for years, we can expect great things from MAD Lions Madrid, who are a prime example of a team which has the potential to achieve impressive results. Furthermore, most of their players are very young and talented and we would not be surprised if either of them finds its way into the main MAD Lions roster in the LCS.
But before we get too ahead of ourselves, MAD Lions Madrid first need to prove their worth in the SuperLiga Orange which is set to kick off later this month, where we will see 10 Spanish League of Legends teams compete for the title of the champions.
https://twitter.com/G2ArcticES/status/1213067832860110849
The said tournament will also feature G2 Arctic, which was announced earlier this weekend, as G2 Esports' new Academy team. While many people expect great things from the G2 Arctic solely due to their connections to LEC champions, they have as of today failed to announce their roster, leaving a lot of unanswered questions ahead of the 2020 SuperLiga Orange.
