MAD Lions came in clutch in the opening match of the 2022 League of Legends World Championship Play-ins against local favorite Isurus Gaming. Fans were screaming for the tournament to kick off with an exciting match, however sadly after a long period of technical pauses the game was a textbook late-game scaling affair.
League of Legends fans had to wait almost thirty minutes before the match started, due to technical issues. The cause of the delay is still not confirmed but is most likely the same issue that started another short pause as soon as both teams started the pick and ban phase. The long-awaited start was of course not expected, and fans were both stressed and excited for the first match to start. However, as mentioned above the game itself was not really new exciting gameplay, outside of two instances.
MAD Lions started off the match with an extremely quick first blood on Isurus’ support Jelly at the end of the first minute of the game. The European representative looked to rush their lead into gold and kills between them and their enemies by catching Isurus Gaming’s laners napping, for example punishing ISG jungler Grell’s invasion on Elyoya’s side of the map. Nevertheless, the Latin American team was not done yet, as they were able to catch MAD Lions pushing their boundaries on their side of the map after a gank in the top side.
The game then started to slow down, with MAD Lions still in the lead and Isurus trying to create picks while farming to catch up in resources. At last, ISG succeeded after the first Baron attempt by catching and taking down MAD Lions with a beautiful wombo combo. In a matter of seconds, Isurus was able to get back in the game, making their home crowd scream in the Arena Esports Stadium in Mexico City.
Even though that Baron play definitely slowed things down, MAD Lions kept growing their lead exponentially in the game thanks to their excellent ward setups. And with their lanes almost at their base knocking, Isurus Gaming had to look some way somehow to force a fight, but they were rather unsuccessful. After losing their jungler to a MAD Lions 5-man chase, Isurus Gaming were trapped in their base killing minions while MAD Lions was taking the Baron for themselves.
In an easy yet efficient end to the game, MAD Lions committed to a team fight in the dragon pit which resulted in an ACE. Now having the Baron buff they pushed through Isurus Gamings’ Nexus, and at last, closed the long 40m plus game.
MAD Lions will go on to play a second game, this time against the Turkish representative squad DenizBank İstanbul Wildcats. On the other side, Isurus Gaming will have the opportunity to take their first victory in their game against Saigon Buffalo Esports, and show the local crowd what they are made of.
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