Sources: Vizicsacsi set to join NORD Esports in the NLC

Another familiar name to European audiences is joining NORD Esports. According to sources from Sheep Esports, veteran Tamás “Vizicsacsi” Kiss will compete with the organization in the upcoming NLC season. The seasoned toplaner will team up with jungler Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer Larsen and Frederik “NoWay” Hinteregger, as previously reported by Sheep Esports. At 31, Vizicsacsi remains one of the oldest players active in the regional scene. He began his career in 2014 and competed in the EU LCS and later the LEC, representing several teams — Unicorns of Love, Schalke 04, Splyce, and Astralis.

The Hungarian toplaner notably reached the LCS Summer 2018 final with Schalke 04, ultimately losing to Fnatic. That same year, he participated in the first Worlds of his career, advancing to the quarterfinals before falling to the greatest team in League of Legends history, SKT T1. Vizicsacsi had a second chance to compete on the Worlds stage in 2021 under unusual circumstances: the Covid-19 pandemic prevented PEACE's Chinese toplaner, Yao “Apii” Jianjing, from traveling to Iceland. As a result, the Australian team required a substitute, and Vizicsacsi — who had temporarily retired from professional play and was not competing that season — suddenly found himself back on the Worlds stage.

Since Astralis' ninth-place finish in the LEC Summer Split 2022, Vizicsacsi has played for BIG in the Prime League. While 2023 delivered respectable results (third place in Spring, fourth in Summer), the 2024 season proved more challenging: BIG and Vizicsacsi finished ninth in the Spring Split and seventh in the Summer Split. Moving to the NLC, Vizicsacsi joins a league that has undergone a significant transformation this offseason. In decline, absent from the quarter-finals of the EMEA Masters since Summer 2022, the Nordic league will welcome many big — and old — names to the scene in 2025, essentially around two teams: Los Ratones - Marc “Caedrel” Lamont's team - and Ruddy Esports.

With Santorin, NoWay, and Vizicsacsi, NORD appear to have embraced this strategy of building rosters around well-known veterans of the local scene to generate enthusiasm. And while this roster will also be part of the league's attractions, it's hard to know how competitive it will be and whether it will enable NORD to break through its glass ceiling. After two seasons in the NLC, NORD have consistently come close to claiming a title but have yet to secure a single split victory. The team finished third in three of the four splits contested (including both in 2024) and reached the Summer 2023 final, only to fall short again.