MAD Lions today announced the signing of Belgian/Turkish mid-laner Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer from Fnatic, having rescued the player from his spot on the bench at his current org. The player joins his new team, pending Riot approval, in place of Steven "Reeker" Chen, who left for Team BDS earlier this week having struggled to make his mark during the Spring Split.

Nisqy joins MAD Lions following spells with Cloud9 and Fnatic, the latter of which he represented at the World Championship of last year. Ironically, he lost his spot on the Fnatic roster to Marek "Humanoid" Brázda, who was signed from MAD Lions themselves, meaning the players have essentially switched places with a short period between the moves.

Champions to seventh in the LEC

MAD Lions were LEC Champions last season. They became the first team ever to take back-to-back titles outside of the traditional ‘big two’ of G2 and Fnatic. Likewise, their LEC titles were the first won by a non-Fnatic or G2 lineup since 2014, when Alliance took the title.

However, MAD Lions have struggled to maintain that form with parts of their team being sold off or leaving at the end of their contracts. Especially the contributions of Humanoid, who functioned as the team's main leader in-game, were sorely missed. As a result, MAD Lions finished the Spring Split in seventh place, missing out on playoffs despite having won back-to-back titles last year.

The roster news will make many fans happy, as Nisqy’s form last summer had supporters excited to see where he would play this year, and disappointed to realize he wasn’t in greater demand despite his clear talent, and the fact he is trilingual. With some luck, he and MAD can rebuild together, having worked in tandem before when Nisqy was part of the org under their previous Splyce branding.