Cover-Credits:
On 21st April, MAD Lions and G2 Esports went head-to-head in the lower bracket of the League of Legends EMEA [Europe, Middle East, and Africa] Championship (LEC) 2023 Spring Playoffs. After a long best-of-five (BO5) series, MAD Lions eliminated G2 Esports from the split after winning the series 3-2 and advanced to Round 2 of the playoffs.
However, the second game of the series sparked debates in the community over the use of chronobreak in League of Legends esports. MAD Lions support player Zdravets "Hylissang" Iliev Galabov called for a pause during game 2 because of a visual bug with G2’s Akshan pick and this resulted in a chronobreak
Following this, several League of Legends esports personalities took to social media to discuss whether or not chronobreak should be used during crucial teamfights.
MAD Lions call for a pause during Game 2 against G2 Esports
A new bug featuring Akshan came to light in the second game of the MAD Lions vs G2 Esports series in the LEC 2023 Spring Playoffs and this eventually forced the officials to chronobreak the game to an earlier time.
After winning the first game, G2 Esports was looking comfortable in the second game and was in a good position to scale off of Jinx’s powers in the late game. However, as the game progressed MAD picked up more kills and towers and had a good gold lead over G2 that just had two dragons under its belt. At 18.35 minutes in the game, a big team fight broke out and at first glance, it looked like Hylissang died to Akshan’s ultimate. Immediately, in the middle of the fight, MAD Lions called for a pause, which lasted over 35 minutes.
During the break, the LEC broadcast crew showed how the Akshan ultimate looked from the perspective of MAD Lions’ attack damage carry (ADC) Matyáš "Carzzy" Orság. This footage revealed how Akshan’s ultimate was all jittery with two lines appearing, making it difficult for MAD to block it.
Following this, MAD Lions was offered the option to chronobreak which the team accepted and the game was reset to its state before the dragon fight.
Once the chronobreak happened, MAD Lions claimed the dragon themselves and it sparked a big debate in the community as many people felt that the resetting of the fight completely took away the advantage that G2 Esports created for itself.
League of Legends personality forestwithout opined that one should not be able to pause during a teamfight or anywhere outside a neutral game state. He added, “Taking a moment to collect ur own thoughts /ease pressure MID fight or sequence is unbelievably f****** cringe and integrity ruining.” He added that even if there is a legitimate bug, the game sequence must be played out and disputed later on for rollback.
Likewise, LEC caster and former pro player Marc “Caedrel” Lamont said, “tbh the game should have been chronobreaked to just before the Akshan ult channel because G2 had such an insane position even if hyli lived. idk if the technology is there for a few seconds rewind or something but felt kinda like G2 got punished for no fault of their own?”
This was not the only pause that occurred during the second game. Right as when MAD Lions was about to take down the G2 nexus, G2 called for a pause. It was called by Sergen "BrokenBlade" Çelik who was on Akshan. He thought that Akshan’s passive was not working as intended which should revive teammates when Akshan scores a kill or an assist on the enemy that killed the ally.
Brokenblade thought his teammate was not revived despite a takedown and this would have been another game-breaking bug if found. However, it was ruled that everything was working fine, and G2 was denied a chronobreak.
