MAD Lions add SPELLAN on trial

The Bulgarian player could make his debut for the team later on Thursday in the IEM Summer qualifier.

MAD Lions have announced that they have handed a trial to former Windigo member Teodor "⁠SPELLAN⁠" Nikolov. The Bulgarian player will fill the void left by Kristers "⁠keen⁠" Dārznieks, who was released on Tuesday after a two-week trial with the team.

SPELLAN will add some much-needed experience and leadership to the MAD Lions squad, which is made up of young players selected by head coach Jakub "⁠kuben⁠" Gurczyński. Despite picking up some promising results - including a victory over AGO and a double-overtime loss to ENCE -, the team decided to move on from keen and search for an in-game leader with a different profile.

SPELLAN will take the reins of MAD Lions

According to kuben, SPELLAN will be working under the same terms as some of the other team members, although he did not wish to state which players are still on trial. With the exception of Thomas "⁠TMB⁠" Bundsbæk, who was signed from AGF, all the players in the squad were free agents.

"At the time of the line-up announcement, we didn't publicly state that it was going to be the final group of players," kuben said. "We currently have a few players on the trial. We are satisfied with those who remained in the squad and we intend to develop them further.

"We play open cards with the players. SPELLAN will also start his adventure as an in-game leader on trial as well. As MAD Lions, we have all players under contract so that they feel part of this project from day one."

This will be SPELLAN's second international challenge, after he represented Epsilon in 2019 alongside players like Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants and Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne. The 23-year-old, who began his career with Outlaws and Windigo, has been without a team since January, when he left SKADE.

SPELLAN could make his first appearance for MAD Lions later on Thursday in the first open qualifier for IEM Summer, which will also include teams like ENCE, EXTREMUM and SAW. Next week, MAD Lions will also take part in the Spring Sweet Spring 1 Regionals, in which they will face eXploit in the opening round of the Ibero-America group.

With SPELLAN's addition, MAD Lions now have:

Thomas "⁠TMB⁠" Bundsbæk
Filip "⁠tudsoN⁠" Tudev
Volodymyr "⁠Woro2k⁠" Veletniuk
Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius
Pere "⁠sausol⁠" Solsona Saumell
Teodor "⁠SPELLAN⁠" Nikolov

Jakub "⁠kuben⁠" Gurczyński (coach)
Jonathan "⁠MusambaN1⁠" Torrent (assistant coach)