The main event of the year in the world of League of Legends and potentially the most spectacular esports event in 2022 starts on September 29. Riot Games opens Worlds 2022 in Mexico City, where the top 24 teams at the end of the season will play for $ 2,225,000 and, more importantly for the discipline, the title of champion.
We begin our review of the opening stage of Worlds 2022 from the Play-In stage. The first match we paid attention to will be the confrontation between Mad Lions and Saigon Buffalo.
In LoL, you rarely see inter-regional confrontations, which here take on a special meaning. Europe will converge with Vietnam.
Mad Lions form
Let's start the review of the match with Mad Lions, as the Western European region is closer in spirit. The bookmakers mark the Lions as the favorite of the meeting with a small gap - they give a coefficient of around 1.6 for the victory of the European team.
Understanding the motives of bookmakers is not difficult. Historically, Europe has been at the forefront of the LoL leaderboard.
It is far from Korea and China, but the Vietnamese teams should be beaten without any problems. However, no one promises Mad Lions an easy walk.
The lions played the season well, since they made it to the Worlds, but you can't call it problem-free. After a successful regional split group stage, where the Lions took 2nd place, the Mad Lions advanced to the upper bracket of the playoffs, where, after the first round in a competitive fight, they lost to the eventual champions Rogue (2-3).
In the next match, already right through, Mad Lions met Fnatic, who without much hesitation did not let the Spaniards into the TOP-3. The LEC format gave Mad Lions a place at Worlds 2022, and now the Spaniards' task is to cling to it.
Heroes Mad Lions
In the season, Gwen, Wukong, Taliyah, Zeri and Nautilus most often complained to Mad Lions. None of the champions performed by lions has an ideal win rate - Gwen, used on the top lane with an 80% win rate in 5 matches, proved to be the best in the hands of the players of the roster.
Support Nautilus has only 40% win rate with 5 spawns.
Saigon Buffalo shape
The Mad Lions will face Saigon Buffalo in Summoner's Rift. The chance of a buffalo winning is around 2.23.
Putting aside the nominal strength of the regions, we can say that Saigon Buffalo's season turned out to be no worse than that of Mad Lions. At the Vietnamese VCS, Saigon Buffalo took 3rd place in the group, after which they went through two stages of the playoffs with battles, in the end, they could not cope with GAM Esports (0-3) in the grand final.
“Hot” Vietnamese can surprise in the Play-In stage, especially given the bo1 format of the matches.
Heroes Saigon Buffalo
The meta of the region is different, because here we do not see favorites in Europe, and not only Zeri with Yumi and Gwen. Instead, Aphelios, Renata Glasc, Lissandra appear. It seems that the only hero for whom there will be a fight at the selection stage is Wukong, because buffaloes also favor the character.
History of personal meetings
Previously, the teams did not overlap during the season.
Exodus
In this match, a cautious choice in favor of Mad Lions. The risk is high because Saigon Buffalo are dark horses and bo1 is the favorite format for teams of this caliber, but for now we follow the logic and pre-match for the lions.
Bottom line: Mad Lions win.
