MAD Lions vs SK Gaming

Continuing the trend of underwhelming clashes, we have a fight between MAD Lions and SK Gaming. To be fair, there's always a reason to tune in, although you'd still be hard-pressed to find one whenever SK is involved. 2020 has not been kind to the legendary organization, and this week should be no exception in that regard.

They're simply ill-equipped for the task at hand. No matter the opponent, they've looked somewhere between mediocre and downright abysmal. There's just nothing to cling to, nothing to commend or say that'll form any kind of optimistic outlook. In many ways, SK Gaming is the worst team in the LEC at the moment, and would probably end up on a Top 10 Worst Teams in History list if anyone would ever care to make such a listicle. They're bad individually and perhaps even worse as a five-man unit. There's no cohesion to speak of, no synergy between the players -- regardless if they've played together in the past or not -- and they've looked worse and worse as the weeks went on. If there was at least any kind of progress, you could at least make a case for them standing a chance once the Summer Split came along, but no progress was made. At least none that can be seen by the naked eye. Sometimes individual players step up, but that's too infrequent a sight, and even when it does happen it's always sandwiched between two bafflingly bad engages or in-game calls.

There's just no positive outlook, and that's been the case for weeks. You could argue that Crownshot has been playing fairly well individually, but there is only so much that he can do by himself, without any support from the rest of his team. Obviously, after playing the role of the punching bag for weeks, SK Gaming will not be able to compete for a spot in the playoffs. As a result, they're basically playing to save face at the moment. Hardly a prestigious spot to be in. Some teams decide to tryhard even when their backs are against the wall and there's nothing to fight for. Others, however, implode even further as they fail to find the motivation to compete. SK Gaming, frankly, looks like a team that categorizes in the latter, although they could surprise us.

Huge, sweeping changes will be necessary for this team to even remotely improve once Summer comes along. Perhaps that's even an understatement. They could even go for a complete overhaul, as there's just too much baggage at this point in time. This roster, in its current incarnation, is simply too weak to compete even with the mid-tier LEC gatekeepers.

Opposite them, we have MAD Lions. This young, up and coming roster managed to make a name for themselves fairly quickly, although it's important to note that they've looked somewhat shaky over the last two weeks. They were sloppy, they drafted for the late game and showed little to no proactivity early on, and have been making confusing and baffling mistakes both individually but also as a team. In many ways, they're noticeably worse than when the split began. They've lost a bit of their edge, their aggression and bravado, and it's hard to understand why, especially as they've found a lot of success over the last two months.

Still, we're in week eight and there are only four more matches left to be played. They're currently sitting in the Top 6 although they'll have to fight tooth and nail with Excel Esports for that very last spot. Falling out now would be an absolute debacle, given how well they started things off. The margin for error is non-existent, and they'll have to pick up the pace soon or all of their hard work and preparation over the last couple of weeks will go to waste. There's no reason to doubt them, frankly. They've always improved week to week and have an incredibly solid coaching staff to back them up. They did regress a bit, but there's a reason for optimism.

They know that getting a win over SK Gaming is paramount. It's an easy win, and should be more than capable of dominating in one-sided fashion.