MAD Lions and Fnatic have entered the play-in phase of the League of Legends World Championship undefeated. The European representatives see themselves in a good starting position for entering the main round with two victories each.

"A win is a win, but I hope we will be better in the next few days," Toplaner Irfan "Poverty" Tükek of MAD said in an interview after the game. "We didn't play really well.»

In the opening match of the tournament, MAD Lions met with the Latin American champion Isurus, for whom this match in Mexico City meant a home match. The match was tighter than expected, but in the end MAD had the upper hand. Also in the second duel against Istanbul Wildcats, the LEC representative stumbled briefly, but still maneuvered the game to victory.

LoL World Championship: Fnatic with dominant performance despite handicap

Fnatic was much more dominant in his matches and won two clear victories against Evil Geniuses from North America and the Australian team Chief Esports Club. At the same time, Fnatic's form was still in the stars before the start of the tournament: Support Zdravet's "Hylissang" Galabov dropped out due to a Covid illness and was replaced by Rúben "Rhuckz" Barbosa from Fnatic's junior team.

The Canadian star-Botlaner Elias "Upset" Lipp got fit in time after his illness, but did not travel to Mexico until the day before the start of the tournament. However, this did not seem to affect his performance: the Canadian even got the first pentakill of the tournament in the second game against Chiefs. Meanwhile, the Chinese favorite Royal Never Give Up suffered an opening defeat against DRX from Korea.