Six losses, zero wins and a plane ticket home. MAD Lions Adventure at the Mid-Season Invitationalthe first intercontinental tournament of the season League of Legends, which is currently being held in London, has come to a halt. By losing against the other European representative of the competition, G2 Esports, this Saturday (3-0), the Spanish team was eliminated after only two matches. Best team in its region in the spring, it completely missed out on its tournament. Earlier today, in a South Korean clash that lived up to its promise, T1 defeated Gen. G (3-2), to secure a place in the final of the winner bracket.
Expedited G2
Three weeks ago, however, in the quarter-finals of the spring split of the LEC (the European championship), the confrontation between MAD Lions and G2 Esports had turned in favor of the first named, to everyone’s surprise (3-2). revenge, Steven “Hans Sama” Liv and his men set the record straight: they were far superior in the first round, then they disgusted their opponents in the second, by signing a spectacular comeback. In great form, Sergen “BrokenBlade” Celik then delivered the final blow in the third.
For MAD, the final results of the tournament are catastrophic: in their first match, Wednesday, against to South Koreans of T1, they had already suffered a humiliating defeat (3-0), losing the third set in less than 17 minutes. “Honestly, the way we played as a team throughout the tournament was ridiculous, and the end of this MSI was horrible”recognized Javier “Elyoya” Prades on Twitter after the match.
The West in deep trouble
To reure himself, the Spaniard can still say that everyone has been housed in the same boat against the four Asian behemoths (JDG and Bilibili for China, Gen. G and T1 for Korea), which largely appear in the above the fray. This new collective debacle still raises the question of the current level of Western teams, which seem light years away from being able to play the leading roles in an intercontinental tournament… Even though the European championship this year tried to change format to make its teams more competitive.
In this first lap, only G2 managed to take a round, against Gen. G (3-1), but without ever giving the impression of being able to win. In his next match, against the winner of JDG-Bilibili, he will absolutely have to raise his level a notch to stay alive in the loser bracket. Otherwise this MSI at home would definitely turn into a fiasco.
