Worlds 2022 Play-in Qualifier 1: NA>EU, Roars Evil Geniuses to Knock Out MAD Lions

Day 6 of Worlds 2022 Play-in was arguably the most important day for the teams still left standing at the tournament. With only two spots left for grabs at the Worlds 2022 Group Stage, all four teams needed to play their best-of-five (BO5) series close to near perfection. The first BO5 of the day was a classic one between the North American (NA) representative Evil Geniuses (EG) and European squad MAD Lions (MAD).

On 5th October, Evil Geniuses rewrote League of Legends Esports history by taking down a European squad in a clean series where it went 3-0. To rub salt on the wounds of MAD Lions, Evil Geniuses’ jungler waved the team goodbye after the swift 3-0 win on the Worlds 2022 stage.

Evil Geniuses shuts down MAD Lions

There was action on the lower half of the map initiated by both EG and MAD Lions but the first blood fell only at 8.40 minutes as MAD Lions collapsed on Joseph Joon "jojopyun" Pyun. But EG secured the Herald in return. After picking up two kills on MAD’s bot duo of William “UNF0RGIVEN” Nieminen and Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser, EG summoned the Herald on the bottom tower and picked up a gold lead.

At 20 minutes, the gold was even but MAD had two dragons under its belt. After MAD picked off and killed Kacper "Inspired" Słoma and Muhammed Hasan "Kaori" Şentürk, it looked to secure Baron but a crucial kill on Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer by Jeong "Impact" Eon-young foiled the plan.

At 29 minutes, Nisqy forced a teleport play which did not go according to plan. Following this, EG killed three members of MAD and secured the Baron. At 37 minutes, MAD Lion started the Baron after Nisqy was caught again. But Inspired stole it under MAD’s nose and ended the game.

EG goes 2-0 against MAD in the Play-in stage of Worlds 2022

MAD Lions charged into the second game and picked up the first blood on Impact. MAD Lions had a couple of poorly executed tower dives in the early game but the team still depended on its late game power with İrfan “Armut” Berk Tükek on Ornn and Javier “Elyoya” Prades on Trundle which never really came online.

MAD Lions tried to fight around Cloud dragon and secure the objective but jojopyun’s Sett came out ahead and EG picked up multiple kills and the dragon. At 20 minutes, EG had a delayed ace and secured baron Nashor, setting its eyes on the second straight win in the series. Soon after, EG destroyed two MAD inhibitors and pushed into the nexus towers. The North American squad closed out the game in 24 minutes.

Evil Geniuses closes out the series in style

Everyone expected MAD Lions to come out of the floodgates fighting but surprisingly EG was the one to secure the first few kills of the third game. The mid-lane saw a huge skirmish between the two teams which Evil Geniuses won at 12 minutes. EG’s Aphelios dished out a whopping 3.2K damage completely obliterating the squad of MAD Lions.

It looked like MAD Lions was looking for scraps and its macro play was faltering by the minute. The North American squad out-rotated it whilst still securing towers and dragons. MAD Lions fell apart one by one at 25 minutes and it was an easy Baron pick-up for EG. The base fell apart for the LEC team and the game was over in under 30 minutes.

Following this victory, Evil Geniuses has locked in its Worlds 2022 Group Stage spot and MAD Lions has been eliminated from the international tournament. Notably, MAD Lions has failed to make it out of the Play-in stage twice at Worlds.

The second BO5 of the day is between LJL’s DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM) and China’s Royal Never Give Up (RNG). Stay updated with the tournament by heading on to Worlds 2022 Play-in: Teams, Groups, Schedule & More.