MAD Lions had a clean start on the first day of the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational Rumble Stage. They defeated Pentanet.GG and Cloud9 and took 2 wins, placing themselves tied at 1st place alongside Royal Never Give Up. After their matches, Marek “Humanoid” Brázda joined Inven and talked about his first day of the Rumble Stage.

The LEC won the match in the big NA vs EU rivalry. How do you feel?

I feel really good. The rivalry between NA and EU has been going on for a long time so it was important that we prove ourselves and I’m happy that we did.

How was it facing Perkz?

Actually, I think the game just went well today. Perkz’s champion pick was bad. Lucian had much more priority, so we were able to pressure and dive him.

Which match of the remaining do you think is important to reach the semifinals?

The most important thing is winning. It might be alright to lose against RNG or DWG KIA, but we need to collect wins against the teams we shouldn’t lose against. There aren’t that many matches, so I think we need to win as many as we can.

Was Cloud9 a team that you shouldn’t lose against?

[Laughs] Of course. It was the most important match for me and the team as well, since Cloud9 is an NA team. So I’d like to say the match against C9 was the most important.

What did you learn or feel while playing in this tournament?

The most important part of all international tournaments is to watch the other regions play as much as you can and learn from it. There aren’t any chances to scrim against other regions unless it’s an international tournament. It’s important to learn from scrims and official games and adapting what we’ve learned into our play.

Before MSI, we thought China and Korea were much ahead, but after playing against them, the gap wasn’t that big and it felt that we also have a chance.

You probably scrimmed against both DWG KIA and RNG. Which team was stronger to you?

Based on the scrims, the two are very similar, but I think DWG KIA is a bit stronger. I don’t know why, but it felt that DWG KIA is more organized and calm — when they got ahead, it felt that it’s impossible to turn the game around.

Do you think you can get through the semifinals?

I’m confident that we can reach the semifinals. We’ve already collected two wins, so unless we stumble badly in the remaining schedule, we would surely reach the semifinals.

Assuming you do get through the Rumble Stage, who do you want to meet at the semifinals?

I want to meet Cloud9 at the semifinals and DWG KIA at the finals. If we can meet Cloud9 at the semifinals, I think it’s going to be really exciting. It’s always exciting to play in a best-of format in rivalries. In the finals, I want to meet the world’s best team, DWG KIA.