MAD Lions vs. Team Heretics Prediction on January 13, 2024

Match info

With the Regular Season games of LEC Winter 2024 (League of Legends EMEA Championship Winter 2024) underway, we resume predicting what’s actually the very beginning of the lengthy League of Legends (LoL) season in 2024.

It goes without saying that LEC is a significant international event. Not only is it one of the top four leagues in the world, but is also the event wherein Worlds finalists from the previous year play, which includes MAD Lions. Their first game will be against Team Heretics. And the two Spanish sides are expected to engage in a fierce fight. We’ll attempt to determine which team will win at the conclusion of the opening gameday on Saturday, January 13, at 9 p.m. local time at Riot Games Arena in Berlin, Germany.

Meeting statistics

The winner of the LEC Winter 2024 will get 80,000 euros in addition to two coveted major event tickets: it will be eligible to compete in the LEC Finals 2024 and, before that, in the Mid-Season Invitational 2024.

The current form of MAD Lions

We examine the MAD Lions’ game form to begin our match breakdown. They are the underdogs in this game, with about 2.50 odds of winning if you ask LCS betting sites. The MAD Lions have won every LEC split since 2021, with a small adjustment made for their loss the previous season. We especially want to recognize the squad for winning LEC Spring in 2023, which came after they placed second in LEC Winter.

It appeared as though the MAD Lions were all done by the LEC Spring split. By luck, they reached the Group Stage. They battled their way through blood, sweat, and tears to get to the Playoffs, where they overcame G2 Esports in the opening round of a hard Bo5 match. They defeated Team Vitality (3-1) in the Upper Bracket final and achieved a reverse sweep against Team BDS in the Grand Final.

The MAD Lions are undoubtedly a formidable team. They’ve demonstrated this numerous times in practice, but this doesn’t guarantee excellent performance—especially on the international stage and even occasionally in their region. For instance, they placed eighth at MSI 2023, which is commendable in theory, but the result in LEC Summer 2023 is already sorrowful. The defending Spring split champions were obviously not at their level as they fell out of the Top 7 of the most recent LEC Championships. MAD Lions defeated Excel Esports 3-0 to open the LEC Finals 2023. Subsequently, they faced off against G2 Esports in the Upper Bracket final, ultimately losing 1-3. MAD Lions then lost against Fnatic in a duel for a spot in the LEC Finals 2023 Grand Final. The lively game concluded with the “Orange“ winning 3-2. MAD Lions qualified for the 2023 Worlds, fulfilling Europe’s third quota.

MAD Lions recorded one victory and three losses in Worlds 2023, which was their worst performance of the year. They were eliminated from the competition after losing to Weibo 0-2 in the match that determined who’d advance to the Knockout Stage.

The current form of Team Heretics

Team Heretics is a clear favorite in this match with odds of about 1.40 to win.

Since 2022, they’ve been a part of the LEC structure. Team Heretics participated in three TIR-2 competitions during their debut season: the Superliga Summer 2022 (Top 1), European Masters Summer 2022 (Top 1), and Iberian Cup 2022 (Top 2).

In 2023, Heretics played a series of LEC tournaments. The outcomes weren’t great: they were eliminated from the top 8 of the LEC Winter 2023 by SK Gaming. The situation further deteriorated in the Spring split as they ended their journey in the Group Stage once more, finishing 3-6 and missing the Playoffs. The next LEC tournament saw Team Heretics play at their best. After losing to Fnatic in a duel for the top 3 at LEC Summer 2023, they finished in the top 4 and earned $5,512.

Following a string of poor showings in the previous season, Heretics signed elite players from Europe to revamp their lineup. We’ll see how they fare against the most powerful teams in the region.

Head-to-head encounters

Last season, Heretics outperformed the MAD Lions. In the Regular Season of the LEC Winter 2023, they went on to win the best-of-one match.

Match analytics

Although we anticipate an even game in this match, we’re betting on Team Heretics to win. At the very least, because the players’ names in their roster speak for themselves. All things considered, Heretics appears to be a team that wants to get accolades at the end of the season, but we’ll see.

Team to draw First Blood – Map 1 (Team Heretics) seems like a reasonable wager. Thunderpick set odds of 1.72 for this.

Results of the forecast

Forecast failed. MAD Lions vs. Team Heretics 1:0