MAD Lions adds Polish veteran innocent ahead of DreamHack Summer

MAD Lions has completed its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster with Polish rifler Paweł “innocent” Mocek. 

innocent replaces Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen, who departed for Astralis last week.

“Thrilled to have the opportunity to join a team like MAD Lions. If you know me, you know I will work my ass off to make it work, as I did last year in order to be here. Hopefully I can use this chance to prove myself on the highest level of competition. Thank you for a chance,” Innocent said. 

Before signing the experienced Pole, MAD Lions was reportedly negotiating with another rifler, Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson from Ninjas in Pyjamas. The deal reportedly fell through as the Swede rejected MAD Lions’ offer. 

With innocent’s addition, MAD Lions deviates from being a full Danish squad. One of the most significant changes for the squad with this signing will be the change of in-game language communications from Danish to English. Despite playing for mostly Polish squads in his career, Innocent has played on international teams such as PENTA, Sprout, and Tempo Storm.

Innocent himself is a veteran of the game, with a career spanning back to the early days of CSGO. He started his professional career playing in Polish squads with veterans Mariusz “Loord” Cybulski and Jakub “kuben” Gurczyński, grinding his way up the ladder over time. 

A standout player on Illuminar Gaming, he helped the Polish squad hit no. 24 rank HLTV’s rankings last year. Illuminar’s performance has dipped in 2020 and the addition of Virtus.pro legend Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski hasn’t helped matters thus far. The team has had a few strong moments, largely thanks to strong individual efforts from innocent.

Illuminar has not yet announced who will replace innocent on its roster.

Innocent will debut with MAD Lions at DreamHack Open Summer Europe against Heroic.