The longest-standing member of MAD Lions’ LEC squad is moving on to a new adventure. Support player Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser is parting ways with the team he represented for three years.

MAD Lions made the announcement via Twitter. “Norman has supported us since 2019 across multiple strong LEC playoffs, MSI and Worlds runs, and has grown to become one of the strongest supports in Europe,” the organization writes. “Thank you for underpinning the MAD Lions bot lane for the past three years.”

Kaiser’s announced departure comes shortly after MAD Lions shared that another player is leaving; top laner Armut will also wear a different team’s jersey year.

From meteoric rise to two LEC titles

Kaiser joined MAD Lions’ LEC lineup in 2020, just after the team had rebranded from its old name, Splyce. Together with Andrei “Orome” Popa, Zhiqiang “shad0w” Zhao, and Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság, Kaiser formed a rookie lineup around mid laner Marek “Humanoid” Brázda. The young lineup took the LEC by storm with its aggressive gameplay and became the first team to win a best-of-five series against the legendary G2 lineup. The lineup even made it to the 2020 League of Legends World Championship year.

With tweaks in the jungle and top lane, MAD Lions dominated the LEC’s 2021 season. Though the results in the best-of-one portions of the splits looked shaky at times, the best-of-fives told a different story. Kaiser and his teammates won back-to-back titles on European soil. MAD Lions became the second-ever team to break the Fnatic and G2 cycle of domination and the third-ever team to win back-to-back LEC championships. At the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational, MAD Lions almost defeated reigning world champion DWG KIA in the semifinal. Kaiser cemented himself as one of the best support players in the LEC.

But the glory didn’t last forever. MAD Lions struggled significantly in the 2022 LEC Spring Split and didn’t make it to the playoffs. The team improved in the Summer Split after Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer joined. With a top finish in the regular split, MAD Lions qualified for the 2022 World Championship. However, the joy was short-lived. MAD Lions didn’t win a single best-of-five in the Summer Split Playoffs and was swiftly eliminated from the Play-In Stage at Worlds.

Kaiser has not commented on his departure from MAD Lions yet, nor has he said where he’ll be going next.