Whether it’s because we expected more of them or they just couldn’t bring their potential to bear, these three teams let us down.
The eight weeks of the LEC 2022 Spring Split are over. There were a lot of teams in the LEC this season that matched out expectations and some that exceeded them. These three, however, did not. Here is why:
Team BDS: Lack of Mid-Game Coordination
Team BDS were one of our dark horse picks, a new organization opting to use a lot of ERL players to make its mark. This is something MAD Lions before them did reasonably well. However, BDS would not repeat that feat - at least not in their opening split. Time and again, we saw a team that, even if they had a good start, looked almost lost on the map. They had difficulties both closing out a game they had a lead or coming back when behind, consistently making bad decisions. The squad finishes the split in a not unexpected ninth place, but the way they got there puts them on this list.
MAD Lions: The SAD Lions Streak
We expected MAD to not be the powerhouse we saw in 2021 after the loss of Matyáš "Carzzy" Orság and Marek "Humanoid" Brázda. However, there’s a difference between “Not winning the split” and “not making playoffs.” MAD didn’t do too poorly in the first half of the split, where they won five of their nine games and got wins against G2, Team Vitality and most bottom-tier teams. However, the second half saw a brutal losing streak as MAD would see no win for three weeks in a row. In many of these cases,the Lions had a good start before they were outplayed or just made unforced errors in the mid-game. Even a 3-0 superweek was not enough to save them as they narrowly lost out to Team Vitality for the sixth spot.
Team Vitality: No Business Being Mediocre
Some may think it is premature putting Team Vitality on such a list. After all, the squad is now in the playoffs and could, in theory, make a miracle run and get to the top. While this may be true, we expected Vitality to be a superteam to easily compete for the top and, well, we did not get that. The team’s 0-3 start could was alarming, but a poor start could be excused and the team still won five out of its next six games in the first half of the season, losing only to the split's top team Rogue. However, in the second part of the season Vitality struggled to find wins against even mid-tier teams, dropping games to Excel and MAD Lions. The squad barely managed to lock the sixth place with a win on the very last day of the regular season against Astralis to eke out MAD Lions. This is not what we expected from a team with some of the best LEC players. Vitality can prove us wrong, but they would need to do a lot to salvage this split.
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