MAD Lions go 1-0 in Group B.
The roars from the home crowd were not enough for Isurus to take out MAD Lions as the LEC Titans kickstarted Worlds 2022 with a shaky but overall decent win. While Isurus did manage to pull the game back to even at one point, it was not enough for the LLA champions.
However, what makes the first day of Worlds 2022 great are all the technical pauses, which lasted for as long as 30 minutes. Thankfully, the game started not too long after that and the live audience was treated to a show with Yasin "Nisqy" Dinçer getting the first blood with Seraphine in under a minute. Unfortunately, Isurus managed to take control of the game as Ali "Seiya" Bracemontes with Miss Fortune was more than able to compete in the midlane. While MAD picked up more kills around the map with great rotations, Isurus was able to keep the gold count close.
Isurus finally got some kills on the board by diving upon MAD's three-man gank, which saw Jesús "Grell" Loya pick up a double kill on Graves. The more the game wore on, the more Isurus grew into the game. They were able to fight back against MAD's early-game aggression whilst keeping their farm up. Nisqy was caught out on a few occasions, which gave Isurus further ammunition to up the ante on the game.
But with the mid-game approaching, MAD was able to still hit their power spikes in time. This gave them further incentive to push out lanes when possible, taking over what was initially Isurus' vision and space. With Baron available, Isurus were able to sneak into the pit whilst MAD's midlane was being pushed in. With the team split, MAD lost the first real teamfight of the match with Isurus outplaying them after slaying the Baron and wiping out the entire team.
The game was on a tether at this point with both teams very much on level terms. Sadly, some bad positioning from Grell saw him get caught out by all five of MAD. While he did manage to buy his team time and space, MAD decided to rotate to Baron instead. From there, they managed to get the upper hand in the drake pit, forcing Isurus' hand. From there, it was all MAD as they managed to take out four of Isurus, leaving only Kang "ADD" Geon-mo alive.
MAD finally had the advantage in the series and they instantly started applying pressure on Isurus' base. They soon took the third Baron with Isurus jumping in too late to contest and getting the team wiped. MAD soon charged straight into the base once more to finally end the game. While the hometown heroes lost, they shouldn't feel disheartened as they brought the fight to MAD. The game was theirs for the taking but it wasn't meant to be. For MAD, whilst their teamfight control was near-perfect, they will need to work on their positioning and not get caught out so much.
We now head over to Group A with Fnatic versus Evil Geniuses as the second game of the day in Worlds 2022.
