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Team BDS complete their 2024 LEC roster according to sources
According to Brieuc “LEC Wooloo” Seeger, Team BDS has completed their 2024 LEC roster. Having only made one roster change to their starting lineup, nevertheless, BDS was still the last LEC team to complete their roster.
AD Carry player Yoon “Ice” Sang-hoon, previously of Zero Tenacity, will be looking to step into the shoes of Juš “Crownie” Marušič. The Slovenian ADC is, in turn, reportedly out of a job for the 2024 season, as the number of teams still looking for an ADC in the LEC has dwindled to zero.
Long Off-Season, Questionable Decisions
According to sources, the reason for BDS having taken so long to replace one starting player was due to Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság. The Swiss organization was reportedly prioritizing getting the former MAD Lions AD Carry for their roster.
However, that plan fell through when Carzzy elected to head for Team Vitality for the 2024 season, alongside his bot lane partner-in-crime, Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov. Meanwhile, BDS and the rest of the LEC teams had to wait for Carzzy to make his decision before they could settle for any other pick.
Other considerations for BDS in the bot lane role included Jeong “BAO” Hyeon-woo, who had already reached a verbal agreement with Gentle Mates in the LFL, Seo “deokdam” Dae-gil, and Lee “Prince” Chae-hwan.
BAO was a massive consideration by BDS, however, despite receiving a clause that allowed him to speak (and explore options) with LCS and LEC teams past reaching verbal agreement, he ended up declining BDS’ offer as he wished to ‘respect his own words of commitment towards Gentle Mates.’
For the two Korean AD Carries, BDS ended up electing not to go with them. Instead, they reportedly shifted their priority towards players who were ‘familiar with an English-speaking environment in Western teams.’ In the end, they landed on Ice.
Uncertain Expectations
Having begun his career in Korea, Ice spent the majority of his career on Academy and Challenger teams for SANDBOX. His highest peak, prior to this, was playing for Liiv SANDBOX (LCK main team) for 3 months. Having moved to EMEA, he was actually the replacement for Oh “Noah” Hyeon-taek on Zero Tenacity, who himself had been called up to Fnatic midway through 2023.
For the rest of the BDS squad, despite entering the 2023 season with little expectations placed on them, BDS became a crowd-favorite for their performance throughout the year. Firstly, they made 1st place in the Spring regular season. They qualified for the Worlds Qualifying Series, made it through Play-Ins, only to eventually fall in the Swiss Stage. In all context, this squad certainly overperformed expectations, achieving the unthinkable.
Team BDS 2024 LEC Starting Roster
- Top Lane: Adam “Adam” Maanane
- Jungle: Théo “Sheo” Borile
- Mid Lane: Ilias “nuc” Bizriken
- AD Carry: Yoon “Ice” Sang-hoon
- Support: Labros “Labrov” Papoutsakis
- Head Coach: Yanis “Striker” Kella
Team BDS’s players reportedly had their contracts set to expire this year (2023), however, there was a clause for automatic extension should BDS reach Worlds in 2023, which they successfully activated.
Credit: Lee Aiksoon/Riot Games
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