As the reigning champions of the LEC Spring 2023, MAD Lions (MAD) were expected to pull off a miracle against T1. However, the LEC representatives suffered a swift 0-3 defeat on a day where Gumayusi shone brightly. This means MAD will have to face G2 Esports (G2) in the losers’ bracket to seek a chance to advance.
To be fair, MAD had a very favorable start against T1, leading their opponents significantly in game 1. However, T1’s excellent team fighting and vision control gradually eroded the advantage that MAD had built up. The MAD player admitted that they were completely outmatched by T1 in the vision battle when they didn’t expect Oner to buy Night Harvester.
“T1 played much better than us, so they deserved the win. I just regret game 1 when the whole team played very well in the early game. If we had controlled vision and fought smarter, we would have won that match. We didn’t expect Oner to buy Night Harvester and negate our vision advantage, those unexpected Teleport angles,” said MAD’s player Hylissang after the match.
If you closely followed game 1 between T1 and MAD, viewers could clearly see the significant impact that Night Harvester had. From the 12th minute of the match (when Oner picked up Night Harvester), T1 was no longer caught off guard by their opponents. In fact, Oner’s zombie wards from the rune helped T1 avoid being snowballed too heavily after a difficult early game.
This was a necessary condition for T1 to regain map control, limiting the dangerous Teleport angles from Kennen. From there, T1 found opportunities to exploit MAD’s lack of durability and ultimately secured the victory.
This loss can be seen as a valuable lesson for MAD regarding vision control after gaining an advantage. Hopefully, the LEC representatives can draw valuable experiences from this defeat to go further in MSI 2023 this time.