MAD Carzzy on going to MSI: “This time we won’t choke, that’s for sure”

MAD Lions crowned themselves as the LEC Spring Split champions. We spoke to bot laner Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság about the victory and competing at MSI.

Game one seemed to start pretty slow in terms of kills and team fighting, revolving primarily around macro games and finding advantageous trades. Was this just nerves or the teams feeling each other out?

Carzzy: “I don’t think it’s nerves, it’s just we had quite a sloppy first and second game. On the other hand I think both games were winnable and we should have won both because we were playing really well in the early game, but we just threw and got outscaled. We managed to recover though, and to be honest I don’t even know how we won that third game. We are still quite an inconsistent team and those mistakes happened to us multiple times during the regular split, but in best-of-fives we adapted rather quickly and overcame it as a team.”

Even when in losing situations I noticed you guys kept looking for team fight angles. Is this just how you guys practice playing from behind?

Carzzy: “We’re quite used to playing from behind nowadays. We used to be the worst team you could ever imagine playing from behind, but with the practice we put into it I think we’re the best team in the LEC right now at it.”

You guys really didn’t seem to lose your composure after this 0-2 start. Can you tell me what the post-game discussions were like?

Carzzy: “We were just memeing around saying ‘it’s a 3-0’, ‘we stand no chance’, ‘we’re going on vacation, are we going to Malta?’. Just trying to make fun of it but we knew we were going to win and had the strength to beat this team.”

Regarding your lane match up, hyper carries you’d previously thrived on like Jinx were permabanned this whole series. Do you think this affected the botlane’s impact?

Carzzy: “I think the only thing that affected the botlane was that we were playing completely away from botlane almost every single game. They were playing around botlane pretty hard so we had to take the bullet and play weakside, but since they didn’t know how to snowball properly it wasn’t that bad.”

Considering the constant resources Rogue’s botlane were getting, how difficult was this matchup?

Carzzy: “It’s really difficult, but it’s not about you to be honest. It’s not even about how you play. It’s about the opponent, like if they don’t punish you then they lose. You are just permanently looking for windows to farm and have a good trade, which makes this fine. If you play against a good team and make the same mistakes we did, you would just lose the game. I think that the botlane is much more powerful than the other lanes right now.”

Obviously Armut was a huge part of games 3 & 4, but the whole team seemed to be playing much more aggressively. What do you think changed that allowed this MAD Lions to pull off this reverse sweep?

Carzzy: “I think it’s definitely the draft. We started changing things in the draft a bit. It’s also because we learned from the mistakes we made and adapted from the throws. I think without Kai’sa though we wouldn’t have been able to win the game. It’s a pretty good champ for weak side since you can quickly clear jungle camps, so I think it was the right pick.”

Considering Rogue opted for a Senna/Tahm Kench botlane, did you feel like you had a bit more breathing room in game 5?

Carzzy: “I think that game 5 2v2 matchup was kind of unplayable for us because we almost never win the 2v2 and they would have to really misstep for us to kill them. They just won the 2v2 passively and since they were playing away from us it was really hard. On the other hand, we outscaled Senna and Tahm Kench really hard.”

Reflecting on game 5, things were looking very bleak for you guys early on but you won through some incredible teamfights. Can you tell me about the comms during the later parts of this tense game?

Carzzy: “In the comms we were just saying ‘look, look, look!’ and ‘fight, they are misstepping!’ we were just looking for them to go too deep in the river. For example in the last fight, we saw that Udyr and Tahm Kench were alone and the rest of the team was in the jungle still so we just engaged on them but those are just the kind of fights you have to look for behind since you can’t win the pure 5v5.”

Of course, now MAD Lions will advance to MSI as the LEC representatives. Though many regions are still in the process of determining who they are going to send, are there specific teams or regions you’re looking forward to potentially facing?

Carzzy: “I’m looking forward to playing China and Korea at MSI. I think FPX will probably win the LPL.”

For you specifically, what does it mean to get another shot at international competition?

Carzzy: “This time we won’t choke, that’s for sure, so we can finally prove ourselves and make some bangers happen.”

Also read:

Will MAD Lions perform well at MSI? Join the discussion on social media or our Discord!

You can also help improve our website by submitting direct feedback!

Image Credits: Riot Games (Michal Konkol)
*The listed articles are provided through affiliate links. A purchase after clicking through them supports us at esports.com as we will receive a small commission without additional cost to you.