MAD Humanoid: “Teamfighting is currently the meta and it certainly is one of our strengths”

MAD Lions pulled out a victory against Rogue in their playoff series. We spoke to Marek “Humanoid” Brázda after a glorious game 4 comeback win.

First of all, how did it feel to be back on the stage after such a long time of online play and did you need some time adjusting to it?

“I don’t think so, I’m generally really comfortable on stage. When I heard we were going to play the playoffs on stage I was really happy, because playing from home just feels really boring and it just felt like the games played from home didn’t have any hype behind them. The reason behind that is because you play these matches from the same place where you scrim. Being back playing on stage just felt really natural to me.”

How did you prepare for this game? You lost both times you faced Rogue in the regular season. What do you think their strengths are and what exactly are the weaknesses you targeted?

“Rogue is a team that plays for their mid lane a lot and they often use scaling mages. They also did that in this series, like the first three games where they picked the Azir, and we just decided to match it with Orianna. We knew we could beat Rogue if we matched their style.

You actually lost out in the first game, with Larssen on the Azir and also facing the Senna-Cho bot lane, what exactly made things so difficult for you in that first game?

“I think the main problem in the first game was that Rogue had invaded our second blue buff, which then led to me having to base a lot with my Orianna, giving Azir all the time he needs to chip away at the turret plates and take it down with Herald. After that point, Azir is just really far ahead and he just takes over teamfights, which makes it so we can’t play our game.”

Game 2 was a big turnaround for MAD, sticking to your guns with you on the Orianna and the Jinx-Thresh bot lane. What enabled your composition to pull ahead this time around?

“One of the biggest things is that we didn’t fall that behind in the early game and with the champions we had in our composition, we shouldn’t be losing in the mid to late game. Because we didn’t fall behind we were able to take over and play out the late game teamfights, which went our way.”

We have to talk about that game 4 comeback, as it felt like Rogue held all the cards after the early game. With your Twisted Fate and Armut’s Urgot as key components, how did you approach making a comeback after that game?

“To be completely honest, my head was already in the next game because I thought it was really lost (laughs). In this game, if we’re even or just slightly behind them, their team composition is just really bad against ours. They have to respect Twisted Fate due to the gold card and they don’t really have any engage, but they were so far ahead they should still have won that game.”

they were so far ahead they should still have won that game.

“I also feel like they were really scared to play out their lead, because we were holding on to our tier 2 turrets. Then we managed to find and catch them out in the late game and from there I don’t think they could win anymore, as their team composition just fell off.”

I’ve spoken to Armut previously, who mentioned teamfighting as one of his personal strengths. Do you think your teamfighting is one of this MAD Lions roster’s best aspects in general?

“I would say so. Looking at the game right now teamfighting is currently the meta and it certainly is one of our strengths. We have a good teamfighting roster.”

MAD Lions has a nice combination of veterans and rookies, how do you feel Armut and especially Elyoya did on the LEC stage today?

“Honestly Elyoya wasn’t nervous at all and he played just like a veteran, you know? I think he is just a really insane player and it never felt like he was a rookie throughout this whole series on stage.”

G2 Esports is up next, you’ve already beaten them once during the regular season this split. What will be the key factors in the upcoming best of five?

“The key factor in the series against G2 Esports will probably come down to how we play and approach teamfights. G2 likes to fight a lot, so we expect there will be a lot of fighting. It will depend a lot on mechanics and teamfighting so we’re going into the series with that as our focus.”

Congratulations on the win today, Humanoid, and good luck against G2 Esports.

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Image Credit: Riot Games (Michal Konkol)

 

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