KOI have reached an agreement with Team Vitality in order to buyout mid laner Adam “LIDER” Ilyasov, sources told Upcomer. League of Legends insider Alejandro Gomis broke the news on Thursday. LIDER will compete with his new team in the SuperLiga’s summer split in place of current mid laner Jørgen “Hatrixx” ElgÃ¥en.
Founded by Spanish personality Ibai Llanos and FC Barcelona footballer Gerard Piqué, KOI played their first split ever in professional League of Legends. This spring split, KOI finished third place in the SuperLiga regular season and were eliminated by BISONS ECLUB in playoffs. The team didn’t manage to qualify to the European Masters.
Following this possible disappointment, KOI are making several changes to its roster. They have acquired coach Danusch “Arvindir” Fischer, as reported by League , and former Astralis top laner Matti “WhiteKnight” Sormunen, as reported by Dot Esports. LIDER is now the third change for KOI this offseason.
Before attempting to sign LIDER, KOI negotiated with MAD Lions in order to buyout mid laner Steven “Reeker” Chen. However, Reeker ended up joining BDS Academy in the LFL, as reported by Upcomer.
Norwegian mid laner LIDER has been around several European teams. One of his biggest achievements came in the spring of 2019 when he lifted the European Masters trophy with Misfits Premier. LIDER ended up getting a very short shot with Misfits in the League of Legends European Championship Series before joining MOUZ.
In 2021, LIDER made it back to the LEC with Team Vitality, where he managed to reach playoffs. Unfortunately for him, Team Vitality replaced LIDER with Luka “Perkz” Perković. Therefore, LIDER spent the entirety of the spring split on the bench.
KOI isn’t the only team that expressed interest in LIDER this offseason. Astralis’ LEC team also considered him for the summer split before those plans fall through.
With KOI, LIDER will also be playing with Jungler Luis “Koldo” Pérez, bot laner Rafa “Rafitta” Ayllón Zapata and support Daniel “seaz” Binderhofer, who are reportedly staying on the roster.
The full roster, after this change, should be as follows:
- Top lane: WhiteKnight
- Jungle: Koldo
- Mid lane: LIDER
- Bot lane: Rafitta
- Support: seaz
- Head coach: Arvindir
