PSG Talon – the first real test for MAD Lions at MSI 2021

PSG Talon will face MAD Lions to round off the first day of MSI. With both teams looking to make a name for themselves, this will be an important test to see how they compare against each other. This match and the entire Group B as a whole, will also measure how good MAD Lions really is this season, considering how poorly the split has went over in Europe.

Let’s see how both teams have done so far in their Spring Split, and what we can expect going into their Group B duel.

PSG Talon – What a dominant Split

The PCS representative had one of the most dominant splits in quite some time. Only dropping one game throughout the whole split (including playoffs), PSG Talon showed that they were one tier (maybe two) above the competition.

Now that they got to the international stage, this is where the team will be put to test. With a traditional mid-bot-centric playstyle, PSG Talon puts many resources into their carries and allows them to get their items to take over the game. Wong “Unified” Chun Kit dealt an insane 32% of the team’s total damage, with a 28.6% gold allocated to him. He is undoubtedly the core of the team… but he won’t be at MSI.

The team announced that Unified will not attend MSI due to him dealing with pneumothorax over the past several weeks. He will be replaced by Chiu “Doggo” Tzu-Chuan, ADC of the 2nd placed team, Beyond Gaming. This is the second time that the team made swaps, following last year’s Worlds, when players of the PSG Talon were replaced by members of other teams.

With Unified absent, PSG Talon will have to find ways to adjust their playstyle. Doggo was also one of the carries of BYG, so it will be a matter of finding synergy with the rest of the team. While the team still remains competitive, this might drop PSG Talon’s potential just a little bit…

MAD Lions – Can they bring glory to EU?

MAD Lions are one of the biggest surprises of this year: they won the LEC, beating both Rogue and G2. Their innovative style of play brought some fresh air to the region, to the benefit of fans that wanted to see more competition at the top of the standings.

Their upgraded roster has become even more explosive, thanks to the addition of İrfan Berk “Armut”  Tükek and Javier “Elyoya” Prades Batalla. The two were key elements to MAD’s success, as Armut carried the team in the Finals and Elyoya won the Rookie of the Split.

MAD Lions Roster

While they don’t do anything particularly crazy, the Lions always find leads with plays all over the map. Thanks to strong team fighting skills, they are not afraid to take skirmishes, something that many teams still have to work on.

The big question mark about MAD, however, is their transition from domestic to international performance. Last year, at Worlds, the team flopped quite heavily, as they were eliminated in the Play-in stage, with a quite disappointing performance.

This year, the team representing EU will have to step up. They will have a golden chance to see how they compare to other regions, as well as gaining even more experience on stage. It will be a lot of pressure, but we think that MAD Lions have what it takes to fight with the best…

With that being said, our prediction is that MAD Lions will triumph overall. It likely won’t be just their matchup deciding things, but the overall performance in multiple group stage games. MAD Lions are the favorites coming into this battle, by at least having the roster together longer. Without Unified’s absence, there might be a different outcome.

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