MAD Lions made it to Worlds 2022 without winning a single Best of 5 set. In their chance to prove themselves against Evil Geniuses, MAD floundered and dropped the set without winning a single game.
In 2021, MAD Lions was the top team in the LEC. They consistently beat out Fnatic and G2, the two top European organizations. In 2022, they lost Carzzy to Vitality and Humanoid to Fnatic.
Finding replacements for these two players that work has certainly been a challenge through 2022.
MAD didn’t even qualify for Playoffs in Spring 2022, but, with Nisqy’s help in Summer, they managed to qualify for Worlds due to their stellar regular season performance. But they still didn’t win a BO5 set in the LEC.
The fact that MAD made it to Worlds without winning a Best of 5 series was a chip on their shoulder. While they remedied that against Saigon Buffalo, MAD weren’t able to take down Evil Geniuses and move on to the Group stage at Worlds 2022.
MAD Lions were felled by Evil Geniuses in convincing fashion
At the start of Play-Ins, MAD looked like a competitive team. They almost took a game off DRX, the only team that didn’t lose a single match, but weren’t quite able to close things out.
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Regardless, the team looked strong against all the minor region teams, and they took down Saigon Buffalo 3-1 despite some close games within the set.
Then everything fell apart against EG. There weren’t really any points in their 3 games against EG that they were in the driver’s seat.
After their loss against EG, @MADLions_EN are eliminated from #Worlds2022. pic.twitter.com/tjl38L4B0y
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 4, 2022
When we talked to Vulcan before all the Play-Ins tiebreakers and their match against MAD, he predicted whether or not they’d make it to the Group Stage. And, funny enough, he predicted exactly how things would go.
“Versus EU, we don’t have the best record, even though MAD Lions doesn’t have the best BO5 record. Gonna be a banger match. But I’d say the most likely outcome is that we get second seed and we play MAD or Buffalo. I think it’s like a 70% chance of making it out of Play-Ins according to my math.”
Evil Geniuses confidence and coordination really showed against MAD Lions. At least they managed to pick up one Best of 5 win against Saigon Buffalo, but MAD have ended 2022 without winning a BO5 against a major region team.