MAD Lions clinch Worlds group stage berth, LEC finals spot with dramatic sweep of Rogue
Reigning LEC champions MAD Lions defended their crown with a sweep of Rogue in a Spring Finals rematch that proved the Lions are the perfect group in Europe.
MAD Lions haven’t misplaced a home best-of-five sequence in 2021. They beat Rogue thrice and G2 twice of their 5 sequence wins whereas amassing a mixed 15-5 sport rating.
MAD Lions set the tone in sport one. Their prime laner Armut constructed his dominance on Jayce upon 4 deaths by the 16-minute mark, and it grew right into a 10-kill efficiency with 95 p.c kill participation and 21,000 injury dealt to champions. The following-highest quantity was 10,900, courtesy of MAD mid laner Humanoid’s prowess on Ryze.
Recreation two delivered a back-and-forth, 49-minute affair that noticed Rogue stumble out of the gate earlier than coming on-line within the mid sport with their superior teamfighting round goals. Rogue are one of the vital essentially sound groups within the LEC and didn’t make too many errors in sport two. However MAD Lions help Kaiser punished each small misposition and overextension with scientific, aggressive playmaking on Alistar—a trait and champion which have outlined his playstyle all yr lengthy.
The sport solely ended after Rogue ADC Hans Sama made an important positioning error on his massively highly effective Aphelios. They couldn’t make up for his injury output and have been bounced quickly after.
Rogue returned to kind in sport three, lastly killing MAD Lions jungler Elyoya for the primary time all sequence, taking down 5 towers in 17 minutes, and amassing as a lot as an 8,000-gold lead. However once more, MAD Lions received out from behind by solely taking fights with a numbers benefit, slowly clawing again and ultimately gorgeous Rogue. This was not the primary time MAD Lions swept Rogue in a high-stakes match, and Rogue regarded shattered after the loss.
MAD Lions have confronted extra adversity than most in 2021, together with their disastrous displaying at Worlds 2020, that match’s quarantine interval, and an MSI-induced lack of trip and dip in kind. The next a number of optimistic COVID checks of their camp in the course of the Summer time Cut up additionally led to extra quarantines. The truth that they get to skip the group stage this time round ought to give them some well-earned relaxation and psychological respiratory room.
Pretty much as good as MAD Lions have been in 2021, they’re younger. Gamers and training workers alike have been vocal about how the burnout and different psychological well being hurdles described above had a big affect on their kind.
Rogue are nonetheless certified for Worlds, however haven’t assured themselves a bunch stage berth. To do this, they’ll have to defeat the winner of Sunday’s matchup between Fnatic G2. Rogue will face the winner subsequent Saturday at 10am CT.
https://dotesports.com/league-of-legends/news/mad-lions-clinch-worlds-group-stage-berth-lec-finals-spot-with-dramatic-sweep-of-rogue | MAD Lions clinch Worlds group stage berth, LEC finals spot with dramatic sweep of Rogue
