Team BDS Announce LEC Roster

The League of Legends European Championship (LEC) newcomer, Team BDS, announced its roster for the 2022 season. The team unveiled a few returning faces from the LEC and young talents from minor leagues who will represent the organization next season.

Team BDS’s League of Legends esports roster for 2022 will feature top laner Adam “Adam” Maanane, who joined the team following a controversial departure from Fnatic this offseason. Joining Adam are two former Schalke 04 Esports players in support Dino “LIMIT” Tot and mid laner Ilias “NUCLEARINT” Bizriken.

The signing of the trio sees NUCLEARINT and Adam reunite under the same banner for the first time since early 2020. They previously played together at Kameto Corp, the academy team of Karmine Corp.

The addition of the three players with LEC experience sees Team BDS form a strong core of players. However, all three are fairly inexperienced competing at the highest level.

Adam joined Fnatic in May 2021, ahead of the LEC 2021 Summer, and has just one split of experience competing in Europe’s top league. Similarly, NUCLEARINT has spent only six months with Schalke 04.

LIMIT is the most experienced player of the three. He has joined Schalke 04 in November 2020 and has spent the entire 2021 season as the team’s starting support. Before that, the Croatian support has spent an entire 2020 season with SK Gaming.

Rounding up Team BDS LoL esports roster for LEC 2022 are three rookies. That includes jungler Jakub “Cinkrof” Rokicki and two ADCs in Matthew Charles “xMatty” Coombs and Hicham “Jaylink” Malki.

Cinkrof technically isn’t a rookie since he has competed at top teams before. In 2017 he spent one month as a part of Origen and has later spent a couple of months with Dark Passage in Turkey.

The 24-year-old started his LoL esports career in 2016 and has represented 12 different teams. However, he has yet to spend an entire split in the LEC.

Meanwhile, Jaylink and xMatty will both make their debuts in the LEC this season. But since they share the same position, it’s unclear who will take over as the starter in the LEC 2022 Spring.

The 22-year-old xMatty joins Team BDS from Karmine Corp, with who he won LFL 2021 Spring title and both EU Masters 2021 titles. Besides that, xMatty also led Karmine Corp to the finals of the LFL 2021.

Jaylink is a surprise addition to Team BDS as the least experienced player on the team. The 21-year-old has started his esports career in March 2019 and has since played for only three teams in Konix eSport, Bastille Legacy and Team BDS.

The French ADC is also the only player of Team BDS the organization decided to keep after it earned a spot in the LEC.

As announced in November, Team BDS will be led with a highly successful and experienced coaching duo in Fabian “GrabbZ” Lohmann and Christopher “Duffman” Duff. The duo previously coached G2 Esports but found themselves at the exit doors following G2’s disappointing performance in the 2021 season.

However, despite G2’s downfall last year, GrabbZ and Duffman remain highly respected figures in the LoL esports scene.

GrabbZ joins Team BDS as one of the most decorated LoL coaches in the region. During his stint with G2, the German strategist won four LEC titles, 2021 Mid-Season Invitational, and has reached the 2019 League of Legends World Championship finals.

Whether GrabbZ will see the same success with Team BDS remains to be seen. However, joining a team that features a stack of young and fairly inexperienced players should prove to be an excellent opportunity for GrabbZ to prove that he is one of the top LoL coaches in the business.

The League of Legends European Championship (LEC) kicks off with the LEC 2022 Spring on January 14.