Misfits Gaming have won a crucial head-to-head against MAD Lions and boosted their 2022 LEC Spring Split record to 4-3 in a close race for playoff seeding.
Misfits entered this series having narrowly lost a close battle to G2 Esports the day before. At risk of dropping to 0-2 in the week, they matched up against the 4-2 MAD Lions with hopes of salvaging their quest for playoff seeding.
Immediately, the game began with a duel in the bot lane where Misfits AD carry Neon grabbed a kill onto MAD Lions AD carry UNF0RGIVEN, crucially setting up an early lead for the late-game scaling Jinx.
That was later followed by another lane kill when Misfits top laner HIRit solo killed MAD top laner Armut at the seven-minute mark. With two lanes ahead in kills, Misfits quickly began to grab an advantage in the early game.
MAD Lions jungler Elyoya reconciled the early game by applying pressure to the bot lane and killing Misfits support Mersa. This temporary bounce back did not last long, however: Neon grabbed another kill, further propelling the Jinx.
A fight broke out on the top side for priority onto Rift Herald, where the Misfits early-game lead really began to snowball. In this fight, Mersa found a pick onto MAD support Kaiser, resulting in a four-kill play as they grabbed the Rift Herald.
They took this objective advantage to the top side, where they grabbed the top side tower. Neon continued to find picks onto MAD’s carries as the lead on his Jinx became insurmountable to fight against. With the primary carry for MAD down, Misfits immediately turned towards the Baron, where they were able to grab the objective and kill the Misfits side trying to stop the play.
From here, Misfits applied their Baron advantage across all three lanes. With three Baron-powered lanes active, MAD was forced to make a play in the mid lane to no avail. Shortly after, Misfits found one final engagement onto the MAD side, winning the game and improving their record to 4-3 on the split.
It was an impressive showing from Misfits, who have steadily progressed up to a tie for third place with G2 and MAD, their opponents this past week.
The race for playoff seeding remains competitive amongst the top five LEC teams. Misfits will look to continue their growth in the 2022 LEC Spring Split, when they take on Vitality and SK Gaming in week four.
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Published: Jan 29, 2022 03:26 pm