The 2022 League of Legends World Championship tournament opened with a match between MAD Lions and crowd favorite Isurus. The 40-minute-long match had a number of long pauses, but it overall ended in MAD Lions’ favor.
Before the World Championship opening match began, esports fans had to wait for almost thirty minutes for an undisclosed reason for things to kick off in high gear. The rest of the game was riddled with shorter unjustified pauses, particularly after the ban and picks phase began.
Fans could do little but wait for the breaks to come to an end, but their already built-up anticipation was met with another textbook match. Besides two scenarios, the MAD Lions and Isurus’ game did not have any exhilarating moments and moved at a slow pace.
One minute into the game, MAD Lions were able to get an impressive first blood from Son “Jelly” Ho-gyeong, their opponent’s support. The gold and kills gap between the two teams kept increasing after MAD Lions swiftly countered Isurus’ proactive plays, which included their jungler, Jesús “Grell” Loya’s invasion of Javier “Elyoya” Prades’ jungle.
Isurus soon got one over the Spanish franchise and caught them after a gank in the top lane, overstaying on the team’s side of the map. MAD Lions remained ahead while their Latin American counterparts attempted to push themselves to gain an advantage.
Isurus were eventually able to get ahead by using their crowd controlling and AOE damage combination, which trapped and took down MAD LIONS, leading to the first Baron’s spawning. The fans of the Argentine franchise in the Arena Esports Stadium seemed excited by the development, but their excitement was short-lived as MAD Lions did not stay down for long.
The European squad continued to widen the lead between the two teams as a result of their vision control on the map, despite how the first Baron fight turned out. Isurus, on the other hand, had their lanes being pushed and attempted another tactic to stay in the game. The team tried to start a fight against their opponents to place them in an advantageous position to reach the MAD Lions, but ultimately failed.
Isurus had to put up a defense for the towers of their base after the MAD Lions took down their jungler and destroyed the game’s second Baron.
The match between the two teams ended in front of the fourth dragon’s pit, where MAD Lions faced off and wiped out Isurus’ entire team in a fight. The European team secured victory in the match after pushing past their opponent’s nexus via the efforts of MAD Lions’ buffed minions.
In their second fixture of the day, MAD Lions went up against DenizBank ?stanbul Wildcats, who are representing Turkey. The Spanish franchise triumphed over their opponents, taking their rightful position on top in the LoL Play-In Group B standings.
The losers of the match, Isurus, are not out of the tournament yet and will face off against Saigon Buffalo Esports in their match tomorrow. Despite being heavy underdogs on the top esports betting sites with odds pegged at $3.30, fans of the franchise will be on hand to cheer Isurus to victory.