Worlds 2021: MAD Lions seek to prove EU is more than just the old guard

After last year’s regrettable result at the World Championship and a close semifinal match against Damwon Kia, the MAD Lions seek to prove that Europe is more than just Fnatic and G2 Esports.

In 2020, the MAD Lions made history in a rather unfortunate way by being the first European team to not make it out of the Play-In Stage. In the offseason, they made some roster changes in the hopes of better results both domestically and internationally– they replaced top laner Andrei “Orome” Popa with Turkish player İrfan Berk “Armut” Tükek, and Javier “Elyoya” Prades Batalla was signed to be Zhiqiang “Shad0w” Zhao’s replacement in the jungle. 

Going into the 2021 season, analysts were rather unsure of how this team would perform as Armut has never played in a major region, and Elyoya was a rookie, but that the players that stayed would only have an upward trajectory. After all, Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser is still the impressive playmaker that people know him to be, Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság can still be a reliable carry in team fights, and Marek “Humanoid” Brázda is still one of the best mid laners in Europe. 

They placed third in the regular season, but there were doubts around the team especially in their early game. Kaiser and Carzzy would usually take aggressive trades in the early game that would end horribly and would set them behind, and Armut was usually behind as he was usually playing on the team’s weak side. In addition, the stability of their early games would usually depend solely on Elyoya. Humanoid at times would still die on a side lane, as is a usual problem with him as well. 

They had 3-1 wins over both Rogue and G2 Esports to advance to the finals, where they met Rogue once again. Analysts still thought that Rogue might be able to win it all due to MAD’s poor early games, and this was true for the most part– Rogue won almost every early game in that five game series, but it took exceptional mid game macro and team fighting from the MAD Lions to turn the tides from the third game onwards. They completed their reverse sweep and went into the Mid-Season Invitational as the LEC representatives, the first teams to win the title that are not G2 Esports or Fnatic since Alliance in 2014.

At MSI, MAD Lions performed beyond expectations. They had competitive games against Royal Never Give Up and Damwon Kia, the two tournament favorites. They had a back-and-forth semifinal against the LCK representatives, but eventually lost the series 2-3. What was notable in their MSI run was that Armut did not fall too far behind during the laning phase, and that Carzzy and Kaiser did not take over-agressive trades in the earlier stages as well. As a rookie, Elyoya was also able to be competitive against some of the world’s best junglers.

In the summer, their run was more or less the same as spring, but with the expectation of former champions. They had a rather slow start as they prioritized rest and not running the risk of getting burned out, and while their record suffered, it did not suffer too much. They once again finished third in the regular season, and the aforementioned problems remained, but analysts expected that they would ramp up in the postseason. They did exactly that, as they had a rather dominant playoffs. They soundly defeated G2 Esports with a 3-1 scoreline, sent Rogue to the lower bracket once again with a 3-0 sweep, and then beat Fnatic 3-1 to secure the LEC first seed. 

While the early game remains a worry for any MAD Lions fan, no one will count them out completely as they can be sure to be competitive in the middle to later stages of the game. They seek to prove that the European talent pool is deep, and that teams that come from this region must be feared. 

 

(Header image via Riot Games)