The Winter Split Final’s rematch is happening a bit too early, but the stakes are still as high as ever in a derby between G2 Esports and MAD Lions.
Only three matches remain in the League of Legends EMEA Championship 2023 Spring Split: the Lower Bracket Round 1 match between G2 Esports and MAD Lions, the showdown of the winner against Team Vitality, and the Grand Final against Team BDS, who are looking extremely strong. MAD Lions have surprised everyone at the end of the Group Stage, but can they do it again versus G2?
MAD Lions vs G2 Esports Preview
MAD Lions
The Lions have finally bounced back from the slump that was the Spring Regular Split! Yasin “Nisqy” Dincer and his team have struggled to make it out of the first third of the competition, but they managed to pull through in the Tiebreakers. In the first match of Groups, they suffered a humbling 0-2 lose against Vitality, but beat Fnatic in a Bo3 which they looked more like themselves, and they solidified their revival against Astralis, who they managed to beat 2-0.
While the Lions still have some issues to iron out, but they are looking more confident than before Javier “Elyoya” Prades Batalla’s Lee Sin is a force to be reckoned with, Nisqy played 10 different Champions in 10 games during the Group Stage, and Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov only doubled with Thresh, so MAD is looking like a really versatile team.
G2 Esports
But nobody can be as versatile as G2 Esports, who are sometimes outright refusing to play the meta. Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther and his teammates have tried everything, from Yasuo and Yone in the midlane, Nilah in the ADC-role, Bel’Veth in the Jungle and Pantheon in the toplane. While none of those Champions are considered to be outsiders of the lanes G2 played them in, they are a rare sight to see in proplay – and sometimes, not even G2 can be successful with such picks.
Nevertheless, G2 Esports was able to stand up from the blow KOI gave them in the first round of Group B, where they beat them 2-1, knocking the Kings of Europe down to the loser’s bracket. They beat SK Gaming 2-0, then took their revenge against the Spanish team, and now they are on their way to defend their title in the Spring Split.
MAD Lions vs G2 Esports Predictions
While MAD Lions are back in the game, G2 Esports were never out of it – if you believe the rumours, they (definitely) tanked the match against KOI on purpose in order to throw opponents off in the MSI, which starts at the beginning of May. Alongside their better performance, the last time Steven “Hans sama” Liv and G2 lost to MAD Lions was at the Winter Regular Season, and while that was an under 25 minute win for the Lions, G2 has been on a 6 win streak, and they beat them 3-0 in the Winter Finals – so there’s little doubt that they can do it again.
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