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One of the funniest League of Legends interactions happened in the best-of-five (BO5) series between MAD Lions (MAD) and Saigon Buffalo (SGB) at the Worlds 2022 Play-in Eliminator. The European squad eliminated the Vietnamese team with a 3-1 scoreline but Saigon Buffalo went toe-to-toe against MAD in all four games.
There was a moment in Game 2 of the series where it looked like MAD Lions’ Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer was getting a kill on SGB Trần "BeanJ" Văn Chính. But the inverse transpired and fans witnessed a unique interaction between Taliyah and Maokai.
Maokai and Taliyah's interaction at Worlds 2022 explained
Nisqy got his hands on the roaming mage Taliyah for Game 2 and BeanJ chose to play Maokai, the champion who is ruling the Worlds 2022 meta currently. Maokai is being played on three different roles – top, jungle, and support – and is one of the most flexed champions in this international tournament.
Before getting into the details, let us see the abilities that both the players used for this interaction to happen on the Worlds 2022 stage.
Nisqy on the Taliyah used the ultimate Weaver’s Wall and BeanJ used Maokai’s W - Twisted Advance. The Weaver’s Wall allows Taliyah to create a very long wall across the Summoner’s Rift and she can surf it and get off it when she wants to. Maokai’s Twisted Advance ability is also a gap-closing one. Maokai contorts into a mass of moving roots, becoming untargetable while dashing to the target. Upon arrival, he roots the target.
At around 20 minutes, both players were seen fighting each other on the top side of the map above the Baron Nashor pit. It was evident that Nisqy would get the kill and come out on top due to the amount of damage he was dishing out. However, he missed his Q: Threaded Volley, allowing BeanJ to escape with his life. At this moment, Nisqy realized that he was surrounded by members of SGB on the wrong side of the map. His only option was to use the Taliyah ultimate to move swiftly to the mid-lane and escape from there.
But as soon as he started his Weaver’s Wall animation, BeanJ on the Maokai used Twisted Advance and attached himself to the Taliyah, riding the ultimate along with her. After Nisqy and BeanJ landed down from the Taliyah ultimate, the jungler finished off Nisqy. It was a funny interaction that caught everyone, including Nisqy, off-guard. The crowd and the Twitch chat were laughing at the interaction but the European mid-laner did not find it amusing.
Saigon Buffalo won this match but lost the series to MAD Lions and went home after a heartbreaking elimination from Worlds 2022. Stay updated with the tournament by heading on to Worlds 2022 Play-in: Teams, Groups, Schedule & More.
