MAD Lions’ Hylissang called for a pause during a crucial Playoffs set against G2 because of a visual bug with Akshan, resulting in a chronobreak and sparking a debate within the community as to whether or not pauses during teamfights should be allowed.
MAD vs G2 has become one of the biggest LEC rivalries since MAD’s strong 2020 year, dethroning G2 from their usual top spot within the region. However, the best of 5 between these two teams will determine which one of them ends the LEC 2023 Spring Split in fourth place, an outcome far below what both teams have shown they’re capable of.
With stakes this high, even the slightest of advantages can decide the outcome of a match. And a controversial pause called by MAD Lions right in the middle of a teamfight has sparked a debate as to whether or not pauses should be allowed to be called for in the middle of a game-deciding fight.
MAD call for pause in LEC match against G2 due to visual bug
The duration of the pause was in excess of 35 minutes, with most of the pause only showing footage of what an Akshan ultimate that killed Zdravets ‘Hylissang’ Galabov from the specator perspective. Players and fans on Twitter were skeptical of the pause.
However, with the added context of Hylissang’s perspective on how BrokenBlade’s Akshan ult looked, it’s easy to see why MAD ultimately thought pausing the game was their best option.
With the path indicating Akshan’s ultimate jittering around, it was difficult for MAD to figure out how best to block its path. As a result, Hylissang was killed. The ruling as to whether or not this bug was worth chronobreaking for lasted for a while, but ultimately gave MAD the option to reset the game to its state before the fight at drake. They took the opportunity.
MAD took Drake for themselves after the game was unpaused, a result that was much less likely with Hylissang dead. Their ability to pause in the middle of a fight and dictate the outcome of the game is being hotly debated within the community.
If there is a legit game breaking / deciding bug let the sequence play out then pause and dispute for rollback. Doing it anywhere near action is outrageously fucking stupid I cannot believe this still is allowed to occur.
— forest (@forestwithout) April 21, 2023
MAD were then on the verge of winning the game, just about to take down G2’s Nexus after the prior pause. But, just as MAD were about to win, G2 called a pause of their own.
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The second pause was called by G2’s Sergen ‘BrokenBlade’ Çelik as a result of what he thought was Akshan’s passive not working properly. Despite scoring a takedown (kill or assist) which should proc Akshan’s passive that revives teammates killed by that enemy, his teammate wasn’t revived. This could have been a game-deciding issue if his passive just didn’t work properly.
However, it was ruled that everything was working as intended, and G2 were denied a chronobreak like MAD were granted. As a result, MAD won almost immediately after the pause was lifted.
Caedrel gave his analysis of the situation via a tweet during a small break on the broadcast, saying that the way the first pause ended was unfair for G2.
the rule is that the chronobreak should go to a dead ball non fighting state so no shade at all but just feels unfair overall
— Caedrel (@Caedrel) April 21, 2023
Analyst and streamer IWillDominate also weighed in on the issue, giving his opinion on what should and shouldn’t warrant resetting the game to a state before the bug occurred.
The only question that should be asked is this : Which is more fair, Akshan gets an additional 300g or MAD gets to reset the fight completely that they had just fucked up egregiously hard (resuling in G2 getting soul point).If the answer is Akshan getting 300 gold, then chrono.
— Christian Rivera (@IWDominate) April 21, 2023
After almost an hour worth of pauses and an over 30 minute match, Game 2 of this set was finally over. With how controversial these pauses were, this set is sure to be talked about for a long time to come.
The fact that two different bug pauses were called in one game shows just how buggy League of Legends can be in its current state, something that has been shown over the past few weeks through a variety of game-breaking bugs being discovered.