MAD Lions vs exceL

This is arguably the closest and most competitive match-up the LEC has to offer at this point in time. Both MAD and EXCEL have thus far been absolutely incredible; they've wrecked house in a myriad of different ways -- against the stiffest of opposition, no less.

And, well, they've yet to show any signs of slowing down or regressing.

It's astounding, really, just how good they've been and how big a stride they've made between this split and last. Tremendous growth across the board. That's perhaps most surprising in the case of EXCEL as they didn't make any change to their starting line-up and yet have evolved a ton. What they did do, however, is go to South Korea and bootcamp like their lives depended on it. They scrimmed and practiced and worked on their biggest issues -- of which there were many.

And so the fact that they're now amongst the best and most capable teams in the LEC really shouldn't come as a surprise -- they fought for it in every single way they could and are reaping "the rewards" for a very good reason.

Much of the same goes for MAD, too. They brought on Nisqy and, by the looks of it, evolved beyond measure. We knew they'd hit the ground running, although we, too, are somewhat surprised to see them play such good League of Legends at this early point of the split. Other than a few bad calls they've been pretty darn immaculate, and even their sole defeat to Rogue could've easily been avoided -- they were in the driver's seat for the vast majority of that context but were "caught slipping" right at the finish line.

These two teams are neck and neck -- they're equals in every sense of the word. We'll give MAD the edge solely because of their experience but it can really go either way and you definitely ought to keep that in mind.