This match was decisive, because it meant the end of the adventure for one of the two teams. Both formations have rivaled in ingenuity to try to get the best of their opponents, offering some very nice League of Legends. Nevertheless, the verdict is in and one of them will go home, without having made a single click in the Main Event.
Tit for tat!
While MAD Lions had offered a very aggressive game during the group stage, they played the first game all in control. Well helped by a armut on fireof which the Gnar wreaked havoc on the toplane, they succeeded in countering all the initiatives of their adversaries. Without rushing or shaking, Nisqy and his teammates played a game full of finesse, where intelligence and game vision were much more in the spotlight than pure skill. The European midlaner was particularly a plague for the Buffalos, with a Gala Sylas, whose ultimates stolen from the Maokai wreaked havoc. The Saigon Buffalos could not worry them in part because of their draft who only understood Caitlyn for AD damage, facilitating the itemization of the Lions. At that time, seeing MAD bend the soundtrack in 3 games wouldn’t have surprised anyone.
Only the Vietnamese hadn’t come all this way to leave so quickly. They let the Europeans draft their special with Hecarim/Gnar on the topside and Seraphine on the bottomsidefor their respond with a Miss Fortune bot and a Vayne top, played by Hasmed. Had the MAD Lions gained too much confidence after the first game, or was it the Buffalos who found a way to break the lock? Anyway, the game is played lots around skirmishes, and in this field the Vietnamese were the best. This time, it was the turn of the Europeans to receive a real lesson.
With a little help from fate
The Saigon Buffalos weren’t the only ones who prepared a few surprises. If see Elyoya return to Bel’Veth was not a big surprise, the Varus of Unforgiven was much more unexpected. He nevertheless brought the small surplus of CC to properly setup the fights, and it helped his snowball team a lot. We can argue about the first skirmish of the gamewhere Europeans had a bit of success, allowing Elyoya to feed, it is thanks to his talent and his skill that the Spaniard was able to transform the test. This time the aggressiveness of the Saigon played against them, allowing the MAD to get match point.
For the fourth game, the MADs went back to the same heart of compositionwith Vex/Varus/Bel’Vethwith just Ornn and Alistar which were not played in the previous round. On the other hand, the Saigon could get their hands on terrifying picks : Fiora top against Ornn, Pantheon in the jungle and especially the Kalista botlane, in duet with Sett. The Taliyah mid was going to be able to accompany this Pantheon, showing their desire to play on their strong point: the fight. But the MAD were ready to receive them. Shortly before the eighth minute, the Saigon tried to exploit their draft with a assault on the botlane. Elyoya and Nisqy had followed, and the Belgian collected a hat-trick on this action. Two minutes later, it’s the Spaniard who stole the Herald in the nose and beard of their adversaries.
But the Saigons did not confess not yet defeated. Thanks to a new skirmish, they were able reduce the gap to just 1k gold. Well, just for a while, because the MAD scored an ace in a fight around the second Herald, which allowed them to fly away. Lol, did you believe it? With 4k delay at 20 minutesthem Saigon managed to make an ace in a skirmish that degenerated into a free-for-all. Again, the duo Pantheon/Taliyah wreaked havocas well as the Sett de Taki, who very often managed to temporize while inflicting significant damage. The following teamfight was still to the advantage of Saigon, who finally equalized in gold. The icing on the cake, they only needed a dragon to have the Soul.
But the best is the enemy of the good. Hasmed wanted to take advantage of his Fiora for split bot, without tp. The MAD Lions did not miss the signal to rush on the Nashor, collect it, kill two players. They also recovered their second dragon, as well as towers including the T3 top, and the inhib bot. They wanted to push top, and the Saigon responded present for the confrontation. But hey, they weren’t going to win a fight 4k behind yet, were they? Impossible is not Vietnamese, and they repeated the feat, again reducing the gold spread to a negligible amount. Except that the Lions were wounded in their pride, and initiated the rematch at mid. This time the Europeans got an aceand were finally able to finish this BO5, after an epic game. The team saluted their opponents before saluting the public, proving how difficult this victory was to obtain.
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