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Fans of the esports League of Legends should be in anticipation of the festivities. As early as 25 September in Berlin, Long Worlds 2024 will be the main competition event of the professional season, which will bring together the top 20 teams at the end of the year in one place.
The competition will start with the Play-In stage, after which 4 more teams will qualify for the next stage. Among the contenders for passage to the Swiss Stage are place and MAD Lions KOI with Vikings Esports.
MAD Lions KOI and VIKINGS Esports will play each other in their first match at Worlds 2024. We will try to find out who will be stronger in the opening match of Worlds 2024 and move further up the tournament grid.
Let's go.
MAD Lions KOI uniforms
We open our analysis of the MAD Lions KOI vs VIKINGS Esports match with a look at the uniforms of the third LEC team. In this match MAD Lions KOI will play the first number with odds to win at around 1.1.
Based on the LEC 2023 spring split, it seemed like the MAD Lions were all-in. "The Lions made up for the tiebreaker in the group stage and barely made it to the group stage. There, they fought, sweat and blood to reach the play-offs, where they defeated future rival G2 Esports in the first round in a tough Bo5, but their misfortunes didn't end there either: they needed to defeat Vitality (3-1) and complete a Reverse Sweep against BDS in the grand finals.
- MAD Lions lineup: Myrwn, Elyoya, Fresskowy, Supa. Alvaro.
The Lions have a fighting roster, no doubt about it. They have proved it many times in practice, which, however, does not always lead to high performance, first of all on the international stage, but sometimes on the home stage as well.
For example, MSI 2023 and top 8 there, which is good in principle, but the result at LEC Summer 2023 is already sad. At the last LEC Championships MAD Lions, the reigning Spring Split champions, crashed out at the Top 7 position, which is clearly not the level.
LEC Finals 2023 MAD Lions started with a match against EXCEL. The opening match of the summer split against MAD Lions temporarily confirmed the thesis of a one-tournament team, losing to the "lions" with a score of 0-3 without a chance.
In the match before that, MAD Lions played against G2 Esports. Obviously, they lost, with a score of 1-3.
In the battle for a slot at the LEC Finals 2023 Grand Final, MAD Lions Ledge and Fnatic. The colourful game ended with the score 2-3 in favour of the Orange. Thus, MAD Lions qualified for the Worlds 2023 on the third quota from Europe.
"Lions" Long Sogpeg at Worlds 2023 with a loss to Cloud9 and continued their performance on the main stage of the year with a win in the European derby against BDS. In the third game, MAD Lions Ledge fought through a seemingly passable match against NRG Esports. In the decisive match at Worlds 2023, the team played against Weibo. Decisive because MAD Lions Ledge went 0-2 and crashed out of the Worlds.
MAD Lions will try to return to the top of the European League of Legends with a match against Team Heretics. It will be difficult for the Lions there, but they should win the game against SK Gaming, sort of. On the whole, it turned out to be the opposite: we beat Heretics and lost to SK Gaming. In the third match they played against Karmine Corp and it was a real extravaganza: The International ernet war between fans, about 750,000 thousand spectators at the peak and the final victory of MAD Lions.
MAD Lions went through the group stage with problems. The team closed the group with a score of 5-4.
In the first round of play-offs, the Lions met Fnatic. "Orange" played very well and slammed MAD Lions with a score of 2-0. After getting to the bottom of the play-offs MAD Lions KOI played against GiantX, where they beat one of the brightest teams from the LEC Summer 2023 at the end of last season. The Lions then went on to defeat Vitality. But in the third round of the lower grid they had to make serious trouble: they finished the series with Fnatic with a score of 3-2. The game against BDS in the small final of LEC Winter 2024 was similar, where MAD Lions barely defeated the French, who played with substitutes.
In the grand final of LEC Winter 2024, MAD Lions lost to G2 Esports 1-3. With that, they finished in the top 2 at LEC Winter 2024.
After their success at LEC Winter 2024, and Top 2 is a success, MAD Lions KOI had a very rough regular season in the Spring Split, finishing in the Top 7 with a score of 4-5. They struggled in the play-offs and made it to the second round of the lower bracket, but couldn't get any further than the Top 6.
MAD Lions KOI barely made it to the LEC Summer 2024 play-offs from the last vacant spot after two tiebreaks.
MAD Lions KOI qualified for Worlds 2024 by finishing in the top 3 at LEC Summer 2024, and in addition, they entered the year's main event with a minus winrate for the year.
Most Popular MAD Lions Champions
Fiora (2 matches, 100% wins) and K'Sante (2 matches, 50% wins) appeared in the top for MAD Lions most often. Renekton (1 game, 100% wins) and Gnar (1 game and that defeat) were also taken.
Sejuani (3 matches, 66% wins) is popular in the forest. Next is Wukong with 2 appearances and 50% wins, and there was also Maokai who won his only match.
On the centre line, Viktor (1-1) and Akali (1-1) have 2 matches each. Azir and Sylas won their matches.
Among shooters Varus appeared most often (3 matches, 66% of wins). Lucian was picked 2 times (1-1) and Sivir was picked once more (1-0).
Thresh (1-1), Lulu (1-1) were picked more often than others. Nami and Ashe, who appeared 1 time each, won their matches.
VIKINGS Esports uniforms
We continue the analysis of the match MAD Lions KOI - VIKINGS Esports with the analysis of the VIKINGS game form. In this match, the Vietnamese club will play as an outsider with odds to win at around 8.
VIKINGS Esports can safely be called newcomers to the professional scene of League of Legends. And this applies to both the regional scene and the international arena.
The activity of VIKINGS Esports was in 2018. Then VIKINGS Esports took the top 8 at VCS Summer 2018, winning the group with a score of 1-13. Next was an attempt to play at VCS Spring 2019 - Promotion, but there they took TOP-3.
After a dismal performance in 2018, VIKINGS went inactive for a full 6 years. They returned to the competitive scene in 2024.
- VIKINGS Esports lineup: Nanaue, Gury, Tomrio, Kati, Shogun.
The debut season after a break of 6 years turned out to be very good. The club finished top 2 at VCS Spring 2024 and then top 2 at VCS Summer 2024, which allowed them to qualify for Worlds 2024.
VIKINGS Esports Champions
VIKINGS take on KSante (3 matches, 33% wins), Gwen (2 matches, 50% wins), Gangplank (2 matches, 50% wins), Jayce (2 games, 50% wins) on the top line.
Maokai (7 matches, 42% wins), Sejuani (4 games, 25% wins), Vi (3 games, 66% wins) played in the forest.
The centre line was most often occupied by Sylas (5 matches, 40% wins), Ryze (3 games, 100% wins), Akali (2 games, 0 wins).
Ashe and Sivir often peaked at the shooter position. Both heroes appeared 4 times, but the former won all his games, and the latter - none.
Of the ѕurports, Ashe appeared most often. Archer was chosen 5 times and won 2 matches. Yuumi (4 matches, 75% wins), Heimerdinger (4 matches, 25% wins) were also frequently played.
History of head-to-head meetings MAD Lions KOI - VIKINGS
Previously, the teams have not played each other in official meetings.
Predicted result of VIKINGS Esports vs MAD Lions KOI at Worlds 2024 Play-In.
If we believe the pre-match odds, the VCS residents have no chance at all. I have watched MAD Lions KOI matches in LEC, and especially in LEC Summer and it is not something that gives us an unqualified advantage. The Lions have more experience, there is no argument, however I would risk taking a bet on VIKINGS.
Bottom line: +1.5 on VIKINGS.