In League of Legends the championship in the European professional league LEC was decided on Sunday night. The playoffs of the Spring Split 2023 ended spectacularly with a “Reverse Sweep” by the underdog. The Spanish team MAD Lions prevailed in a thrilling finale. Hardly anyone expected this from them, as three players in the lineup were actually already written off.
Who are the 3 LoL professionals who failed before? MAD Lions are generally a very successful team, but they let go of two of their best players in November 2022: the Turk Armut (top lane) and the German Kaiser (support).
From their successful team, only the jungler Elyoya was left. Instead, they brought in three professionals in 2022 who were actually already written off:
- In May 2022, the Belgian Nisqy joined the team: The mid laner was constantly criticized at Fnatic, considered a weak point of the team
- Also from Fnatic came the support player Hylissang: He was a red rag for the fans of Fnatic. A “coin-flip” player, as he is called, is someone who can perform but can also lose games single-handedly
- Additionally, “Carzzy” joined the team. He was actually considered a strong player, having shone at MAD Lions for 2 years. The 21-year-old Czech damaged his good reputation with a disappointing year in France at “Team Vitality”, where he simply didn’t function
All 3 players came from crisis situations and apparently did not really choose to leave their star-studded teams.
Two of them just happened to come from Fnatic, who have had huge problems in recent times. And these three were now supposed to become champions? This was considered unlikely.
In the regular season, they only managed to finish 8th out of 10. It was actually a miracle that MAD Lions could even reach the finals.
The underdog MAD Lions just made it to the playoffs, beating all giants
How did it go for the MAD Lions? The MAD Lions had a tough path to the final: They barely made it into the playoffs and had to face the biggest stars in Europe. First, they faced G2 with Caps, whom they defeated 3-2, then they had to deal with Perkz and Team Vitality, whom they managed to beat 3-1.
For their final opponents, BDS, the path to the final was easy: only Team Vitality was a hurdle to overcome, which they dispatched 3-0.
How was the final? In the final, there were relatively clear defeats for MAD Lions in the first 2 games: it was over in 30 and 33 minutes. Especially Nisqy had to endure in both games and suffered a total of 11 deaths.
The games were balanced in themselves but tilted in favor of the Swiss team BDS in the mid-game.
For the decisive example of game 1, this teamfight can serve as an example, ending with a pentakill from ADC Crownie (Team BDS):
But starting from game 3, the tide suddenly turned. Somehow it seemed that MAD Lions had to be pushed against the wall for things to start working. The team fought back into match 3 and then it suddenly became a breeze.
MAD Lions dominated with 17-6, 15-5, and 14-0 against their opponents.
“No one believed in us”
How is this being commented? After the match, the top laner Chasy tweeted: “No one believed in us, but we won the LEC”.
With this, very few probably actually expected it.
On Reddit, it is referred to as a “Cinderella” story. The performance of top laner Chasy, who excelled in the last 3 games of the playoffs, is particularly highlighted.
It is ironic that in the past, many LoL professionals switched to Fnatic or Team Vitality to become champions there. Now, however, 3 players have become champions who left those teams and went to the underdog.
Many professionals would do anything to become a champion in the LEC, such as Rekkles:
LoL: “Besides the game, there isn’t much in my life,” says a star player and starts crying on Twitch
