League of Legends fans are in for a wild ride as Worlds 2022 kicks off on 29th September with the Play-in. Out of the 12 teams participating in the Play-in, only four will make it to the main event of Worlds 2022, making the margin for error very minimal. Europe – League of Legends European Championship (LEC) – was allowed to bring four teams to Worlds 2022 this year since the League of Legends Continental League (LCL) could not send a representative this year. So LEC will be the only region to have two teams play in the Play-In stage.
It would be unfortunate if the teams did not make full use of this golden opportunity. Here’s everything you need to know about the European teams playing in the opening stage of Worlds 2022: Fnatic and MAD Lions.
MAD Lions had a roster change coming into the 2022 season with the team bringing in Steven “Reeker” Chen as its mid-laner and William "UNF0RGIVEN" Nieminen as the attack-damage carry (ADC). The Spring Split was not a success story for the team as it placed 7th in the league standings and failed to make it to the Spring playoffs. Following this, the team signed former Fnatic mid-laner Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer for the Summer Split and it immediately seemed like things fell into place for the team. Notably, MAD Lions was the first team to lock in its Summer Playoffs spot in the LEC. Despite losing a few matches in the split, MAD Lions showed great resilience on the Rift and earned its playoff ticket.
During the playoffs, G2's win against Misfits Gaming in the Upper Bracket helped MAD Lions auto-lock its spot at Worlds 2022.
The roster of MAD Lions is as follows:
İrfan “Armut” Berk Tükek - Top lane
Javier “Elyoya” Prades - Jungle
Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer - Mid
William “UNF0RGIVEN” Nieminen - ADC
Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser - Support
MAD Lions' Previous Worlds runs
Last year, at Worlds 2021, MAD Lions was Europe’s number one seed and was directly seeded into the Group Stage of the tournament. The team managed to claw it out of groups and made it to Worlds 2021 quarterfinals where it eventually lost to Damwon Kia (DK) in a 3-0 scoreline.
At Worlds 2020, MAD Lions made it to the Play-in but could not progress further in the tournament.
For this year, all eyes will be on the top side of the map for MAD Lions with the likes of Armut, Elyoya, and Nisqy leading the charge. Nisqy showed great promise on roaming mid-laners like Taliyah in the Summer Split and Elyoya once again proved that he was one of the best junglers in Europe.
Taken from https://afkgaming.com/