In the first game of Group B for the LEC Winter Split, Astralis gave MAD Lions a scare. In the end, though, MAD Lions lived up to their reputation as the favorite.
MAD Lions and Astralis dominated Game one, putting on a great show. In game two, however, they quickly regained lost ground and knotted things up against Astralis. This time, Dajor, who was running circles around MAD Lions on Sylas.
Astralis got a solo queue special in the form of a Cassiopeia-Twitch bottom lane in game three. Jeonghoon's Twitch support led Astralis to a full AP build, but the poisonous bottom lane duo failed to push Astralis past Group B's top seed.
In both of their victories today, the MAD Lions' solo laners were the team's prime win condition.
Chasy and Nisqy faced off against K'sante and Azir in both games, allowing MAD Lions to win by a hair's breadth in the mid-lane, while in the decider, Chasy was an overwhelming force on K'sante in the top lane. In game three, the scoreline was 9/1/7.
The first LEC pentakill in 2023 propels the MAD Lions to joint-first place.
MAD Lions have advanced to the LEC playoff qualification match, where they will face the winner of G2 Esports and BDS on Wednesday, February 12.
Astralis is now in the losers' bracket in Group B, where they will face the winner of the G2-BDS game on February 18. During the Winter Split round robin, neither team fought back.