LEC newcomers Team BDS have announced their 2022 League of Legends roster – and it includes UK ADC player xMatty and former Fnatic top-laner Adam.
Analyst Duffman is also from Scotland.
The roster is as follows:
- Top: Adam (France)
- Jungle: Cinkrof (Poland)
- Mid: Nuclearint (France)
- ADC: xMatty (UK)
- Support: Limit (Croatia)
- Head coach: GrabbZ (Germany)
- Analyst: Duffman (UK)
Team BDS made the announcement in a video on Twitter – which xMatty tweeted and said how excited he was to “finally get a shot in the LEC”.
Several of these players have been with French organisation Karmine Corp (KC) in recent years – xMatty and Cinkrof have joined straight from the so-called ‘Blue Wall’, while Adam moved from there to Fnatic earlier in 2021. Now they’re reunited in the LEC.
Karmine Corp won back-to-back European Masters titles this year, before going on to sign well-known ADC Rekkles from G2, and they recently enjoyed a well-viewed showmatch with Ibai’s Spanish team Koi that drew around half a million viewers on Twitch.
Spring 2022 will be Team BDS’ first season in the League of Legends European Championship (LEC).
Back in June, Team BDS acquired Schalke 04’s LEC slot for €26.5m, who left League of Legends esports due to financial constraints from their main footballing arm.
xMatty left KC last month before opening talks with several teams.
For UK League of Legends, it’s fantastic to have another player in the LEC – let’s see how xMatty fares with Team BDS in his inaugural LEC season which kicks off on January 14th 2022.
For Adam, the move may be one of redemption. Adam was involved in some long-running drama with his former teammate Upset at Fnatic, which he recently aimed to end earlier this month.
In some recently released LEC stats today, Adam had the top solo kills with 28.
Team BDS head coach GrabbZ said in an interview with Hotdrop that xMatty is ready for the LEC: “I think, if you win EU Masters twice, you already showed that you can play in the LEC. Let’s face it, I think good EU Masters teams are probably equal to the tenth/ninth-placed teams in the LEC. Easily.
“At G2 we scrimmed against Karmine Corp as well, so we could see that these players are not bad. I think, ability-wise, there was never a question about it. Just talking to them, it also was really clear that they can bring more to the table than just being a player. What will you bring to the table besides the gameplay? What can you bring, what type of atmosphere? It was really important to me that I have five players who are functioning not only as a League player, but also as athletes.”
The news comes after Team BDS won the Rocket League RLCS 21/22 Fall Major and announced a Team BDS rebrand a few days ago, including a new ‘Challenge the Game’ motto:
Read more: Riot reveals League of Legends esports start dates for Spring 2022 LEC, EU Masters, NLC and ERLs
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
