The 2022 League of Legends World Championship kicked off yesterday, and LEC’s MAD Lions found success in their first day of matches with victories over Isurus and Istanbul Wildcats. But they have yet to play the top dogs of the group: the LPL’s RNG and LCK’s DRX.
Despite finishing the day undefeated, MAD Lions mid laner Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer doesn’t think the team’s performance was good enough to take on the best teams in the group.
In a post-game interview with Laure Vallée, he admitted the team played better in scrims than on stage, forgetting “some details” he hopes they will fix ahead of their next match against RNG at 9pm CT today.
Nisqy said the team had little time to prepare for the series due to technical issues, but gave their all and earned the victory nonetheless, “even without being very clean.”
“We will fix [the little details],” he said. “I hope we will because if we don’t, it will be hard to finish first or second place in the group. The mistakes we made will be punished against DRX and RNG.”
Related: MAD Lions roar to victory in opening match of Worlds 2022
To claim a win over the LPL team, Nisqy said the team plan to play “their own style” rather than copy the other teams, and to be as aggressive to take them by surprise. “If you hesitate against them, you lose the fight,” he said.
MAD Lions were slotted into the Play-In group with both DRX and RNG, who are considered the favorites to qualify for the main event. MAD Lions will either have to surpass one of the top dogs to make it through or win over the other group’s second-placed team in the Knockout stage if they finish third.
They shouldn’t overlook their opponents from minor regions either. Nisqy and support Kaiser said they found teams from minor regions stronger than the previous years. “Europe is generally better in mid-game and in teamfights, but this year, [minor teams] aren’t bad at all. We have to full tryhard.”
