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The biggest professional League of Legends tournament in Europe continues with the play-offs. There are 4 teams left in the race for the LEC Winter 2024 championship.
The contenders for the title of the best team in Europe according to LEC Winter 2024 are fighting not only for status, but also for very real prizes. At stake: 80,000 euros, a trip to the Mid-Season Invitational 2024 and a slot to the LEC Finals 2024.
Today we are talking about the fight between MAD Lions and Fnatic, which will take place in the third round of the lower grid. The winner advances to the Top 3, where he will play against BDS in the next match.
Let's find out who will be stronger and will make it to the Top 3, and who will be left out of the LEC Winter 2024 and will be eliminated from the championship.
Let's go.
Fnatic uniforms
Let's open the match with an analysis of Fnatic's form. In this match the Orange will play the number one with odds to win at 1.4.
Fnatic started their rise to the LEC Regional Finals last season with an appearance at LEC Winter 2023. It wasn't a successful one, as the Orange finished in 9th place and didn't make it out of the group stage.
The following season, Fnatic gave one last chance to roster with Rekkles. They failed to use it, as FNC, after coming out of the group stage, lost in their first match against MAD Lions, thus ending the spring split at the top 8.
- Fnatic lineup: Oscarinin, Razork, Humanoid, Noah, Jon.
Two terrible splits resulted in major re-splits. ADC Rekkles and support Advienne left the band. In their place came Korean legionnaire Noah and experienced support Trymbi. The result was not long in coming.
Fnatic looked much better at the LEC summer split than at the two previous ones. The team managed to make it through the group stage and then made it to the top 3 of LEC Summer 2023, which allowed them to advance to the regional finals. Here's the truth, to the bottom set.
Fnatic played against Excel - the main opener of LEC Summer 2023 - in the match to advance to the Top 4 and won. They won 3-2 in a tense bo5.
In the match for the LEC Finals 2023 Small Final, Fnatic and BDS had a real fight (3-2), and Fnatic ended up here.
They also managed to beat MAD Lions, with whom they played for a place in the grand final. And again, the full-fledged bo5 with a score of 3-2 in favour of the Orange. But the grand final was not enough: G2 Esports beat Fnatic 3-1.
At Worlds 2023, Orange played to the best of their ability. The club lost the first match against LNG Esports, and then outplayed the Vietnamese from GAM Esports. The last match on the way to a 1-2 set was a match against BLG, which Fnatic legitimately lost. Then FNC defeated C9 with a score of 2-1, and in the match for play-offs Ledge and WBG. The latter, by the way, became the vice-champion of the World Championship, so the result for the European club was excellent.
Fnatic will debut at LEC Winter 2024 with a match against Karmine Corp. Based on the experience of previous seasons, there is every chance to see the favourite (which is Fnatic) lose in that match. Next, they will face Vitality and this is where I would bet in favour of the Orange. That's pretty much how it turned out, except for the match against Karmine Corp: Fnatic closed two series, but lost in the match against SK Gaming.
Fnatic had a pretty good start to the regular season, but it got worse from there. Fnatic finished the regular season with a score of 5-4. The LEC Winter 2024 playoffs "Orange Longsong" with a very confident victory against MAD Lions. Next, Fnatic played against G2 Esports and looked good there, even managing to snatch the map, which no one has managed to do so far.
In the match for the quarter-finals Fnatic met with SK Gaming. The German club put up a fight, but Fnatic were stronger: 2-1 in favour of Humanoid and company guaranteed their passage to the top 4 of LEC Winter 2024.
Fnatic's most popular champions
Jax (3 matches, 33% wins), Gwen (2 matches, 50% wins), Gangplank (2 matches, 50% wins), Jayce (2 games, 50% wins) take the top line.
In the woods, Maokai (7 matches, 42% wins), Sejuani (4 games, 25% wins), Vi (3 games, 66% wins) were permanent.
The centre line was most often occupied by Sylas (5 matches, 40% wins), Ryze (3 games, 100% wins), Akali (2 games, 0 wins).
Zeri and Sivir peaked equally often on the shooter position. Both heroes appeared 4 times, but the former won all his games, and the latter - none.
Ashe appeared most often amongst the Spurrots. Archer was chosen 5 times and won 2 matches. Yuumi (4 matches, 75% wins), Heimerdinger (4 matches, 25% wins) were also frequently played.
MAD Lions KOI uniforms
We continue the match analysis with the analysis of MAD Lions KOI's form. In this match they play the number two with odds to win around 2.8.
Based on the LEC spring split, it looked like the MAD Lions were all-in. "The Lions played for a 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 the misfortunes didn't end there either: they needed to defeat Vitality (3-1) and complete the 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 went on to defeat Vitality with confidence as well.
Most Popular MAD Lions Champions
Fiora (2 matches, 100% wins) and KSante (2 matches, 50% wins) appeared in the top for MAD Lions more often than others. 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.
History of head-to-head meetings between MAD Lions and Fnatic
Over the last 5 matches between the teams, a sad picture has emerged for MAD Lions. "Lions" won only 1 match, and that in the regular season LEC Winter 2024, but already in the first round of play-offs without a chance they lost to them.
Predicted result of Fnatic vs MAD Lions at LEC Winter 2024
As far as I'm concerned, everything is clear with this match. Fnatic look more serious and ready to take on BDS, who they will definitely give a fight to. As for MAD Lions, their passage through the lower grid is more of a fluke than not: after all, their opponents in the first two rounds were much weaker than Fnatic's. All in all, a win for FNC.
Bottom line: Fnatic wins.
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