We normally don’t cover ERL and Academy news, but these two signings are definitely worth talking about: LEC veteran Tore “Tore” Hoel Eilertsen and K1CK top laner Krzysztof “Kackos” Kubziakowski have both signed for MAD Lions Madrid (formerly known as MAD Lions Academy).

Now, Kackos is far from a household name, but he’s definitely a worthy pick-up and has done admirably well with K1CK over in the Ultraliga. They failed to dethrone AGO Rogue, but they at least put up a valiant fight and have earned everyone’s respect in the process. K1CK’s run at the most recent EU Masters Spring, however, was about as underwhelming as it gets. They failed to get out of groups and had only managed to get a single win on the board — hardly anything worth writing home about.

Regardless, MAD Lions Madrid were in dire need of a shake-up after failing to reach the LVP SL 2021 playoffs despite having a fairly solid line-up. They’re expected to keep Alexander “Alexx” Österlind, Jonas “knighter” Bryder Jensen, and Victor “Flakked” Lirola, meaning they’ll retain their three-man core and enter the upcoming Summer Split with a brand-new top laner and support. Not the most sweeping of changes, but a solid step forward nonetheless.

The more interesting change is the one regarding LEC alumnus Tore; having someone as experienced and mechanically gifted as this Norwegian League of Legends veteran will surely serve as a boon to MAD Lions Madrid, especially given today’s meta and just how big of an impact supports can have on the game. Tore excels at champions like Nautilus, Leona, Alistar, and Thresh, all of which are currently worth first-picking.

Whether Tore’s presence will be enough for MAD to turn things around and correct the course still remains to be seen though. The odds are certainly stacked against them, but these are positive changes and they could, by all means, snowball and create a bit of positive momentum.

Now, we don’t have the nitty-gritty as to what happened and how it all went down, but seeing Tore over in the LVP is definitely not something anyone expected. Then again, given MAD’s recent success, signing for an organization that seemingly has talent development figured out certainly makes a lot of sense.

Is it a downgrade career-wise? Without a doubt, but it may pay dividends further down the road. In any case, it’s a good chance for Tore to once again prove his worth and make waves in the European Regional Leagues before once again, potentially, mounting a comeback. In all fairness, it’s not much worse than what he’d been able to achieve with XL (pretty much next to nothing), so it’s not like he had a slew of options to choose from.