The final team advancing to the group stage of the Spring Split was determined by the first tiebreaker game of the 2023 LEC season. After a fiercely contested match marred by numerous technical hiccups, team Heretics was upset by MAD Lions to claim eighth place in the regular season rankings.
While the former will have another chance at the title, the latter got eliminated from the LEC Spring Split and will have to wait two months before their next official League of Legends match on the EMEA stage.
The two teams kicked off with a slow and steady rhythm, which saw neither of them making a wrong step that would have gifted the opponents with crucial advantages.
However, the mid game was characterized by skirmishes around the map, which most of the time went in favor of Mad Lions, who found themselves a small gold lead and the majority of neutral objectives.
And, despite Heretics trying to match their opponents and recover from the lack of drakes obtained, they’re no match for the cohesive teamfighting style of MAD.
Nonetheless, Heretics succeeded in keeping the gap between them and their opponents narrow, but that became an extremely challenging task for them to do as MAD quickly obtained the first Baron buff of the game as soon as the monster spawned.
With it, MAD moved to pressure all lanes on the Rift, rapidly entering their opponents’ base from the bot, where a game-defining fight broke out. MAD barely escaped from that but didn’t succeed in doing the same minutes later in the top lane, gifting Heretics a team ace.
Heretics defended their base time and time again after that fight, but one dragon fight around the Hextech soul tipped the scale in favor of MAD. With no one alive to stop them, the Lions moved to close the game, confirming their spot in the next stage.
While the winning League team will have to wait just two weeks before their next match, Team Heretics will remain out of the competition for the upcoming two months. Their next competitive match will be in the Summer Split of the LEC.