The ice has been broken and the first official announcement of a new hire for the LEC’s 2023 season is in. MAD Lions has revealed their new top laner: Kim “Chasy” Dong-hyeon. Chasy will make his debut in the LEC after spending the Summer Split on X7’s roster in the NLC. Before that, Chasy played for DWG KIA’s academy team in the LCK CL.

With X7, Chasy reached the grand final of the 2022 NLC Summer Split. Though the team fought a close fight with opponent Dusty, they had to settle for a silver medal. X7 qualified for the EU Masters 2022 Summer tournament and came out swinging; they dropped just one game in the Group Stage. However, in the Knockout Stage of the event, X7 suffered a decisive loss against GameWard and dropped out of the tournament.

More MAD announcements impending

Chasy follows in the footsteps of top laner İrfan “Armut” Tükek. The Turkish top laner parted ways with MAD Lions after two years of service, during which he raked in two LEC titles. Though Chasy has big shoes to fill in that regard, he has one leg up over his predecessor already: Chasy is comfortable playing a wide variety of champions.

MAD Lions has two other slots to fill for their LEC 2023 lineup. Earlier this week, they let go of their bot lane duo as well. Support player Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser and bot laner William “UNF0RGIVEN” Nieminen are seeking new adventures. Given the pace of MAD Lions’ announcements this week, their replacements will likely be announced soon.