Fnatic vs. MAD Lions: 2021 LEC Summer betting analysis

The 2021 LEC Summer Split is entering its final week of the regular split and two teams are fighting for a top spot: Fnatic and MAD Lions. 

With just three games left in the regular season, every win counts in the upcoming week. Especially for Fnatic and MAD Lions who enter the week on even footing with a 10-5 record. Alongside Misfits, these three teams are looking to make a last effort at catching Rogue in the first place or just lock a spot in the top two. With several competitors for the top spots, a match like this will be absolutely key to who makes it and who doesn’t. 

Fnatic will be entering this week on the back foot after losing both games last week to Rogue and SK Gaming respectively. These losses knocked down Fnatic from first place and the team will now again have to rebound and find momentum. So far this split, Fnatic has been doing better than most would have expected with Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau doing surprisingly well in the jungle after swapping in from the top lane. 

The games where Bwipo does well are usually also those where Fnatic gets to dominate the map. Last week, Bwipo couldn’t make things work in the jungle and thus Fnatic lost a lot of its strength. To take down MAD Lions, Bwipo will have to be on point as Javier “Elyoya” Batalla is known for punishing mistakes very well. 

Punishing mistakes is something Elyoya has been able to do over the past weeks as MAD Lions has bounced back with three wins in a row. The defending LEC champion had a pretty rough start to the split but is now looking like a team that has finally hit the form that everyone expected of it. If MAD Lions can keep it up, it will once again be a contender for the trophy, and beating Fnatic would be a great step in that direction.   

The last win for MAD Lions was against first-place team Rogue, where Elyoya and bot laner Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság really got to show what can be done when MAD Lions is given the chance to snowball a game. Out of nowhere, MAD Lions took down Rogue in 30 minutes in a real statement game. 

The confidence of MAD Lions will likely be high heading into the match against Fnatic, which puts Bwipo and the rest of the squad in a tough spot. The team will have to figure out a way to control MAD Lions in the early stages and hold on tight throughout the game to come out ahead. 

Fnatic vs. MAD Lions rosters

Fnatic roster: 

• Top – Adam “Adam” Maanane
• Jungle – Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau
• Mid – Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer
• Bot – Elias “Upset” Lipp
• Support – Zdravets “Hylissang” Galabov

MAD Lions roster: 

• Top – İrfan “Armut” Tükek
• Jungle – Javier “Elyoya” Batalla
• Mid – Marek “Humanoid” Brázda
• Bot – Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság
• Support – Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser

MAD Lions has the edge over Fnatic in LEC summer

With the two teams being this close in the standings, bookmakers agree that this one could go both ways. In fact, the odds are almost even on the two which usually means that it’s a hard match to predict. With that said, this might not be the case in this match. Considering the recent performance from MAD Lions, it’s fair to expect that the defending LEC champion will be the favorite in this one. A win against Rogue is no easy task and likely gave MAD Lions a lot of faith back in defending the trophy. Fnatic is trending downwards which can have an effect on a team with this many recent roster changes. 

For now, the odds are very close on these teams with MAD Lions giving odds of 1.80. Fnatic gives a slightly higher odds of 1.90 but is in general very close to the Lions. This game can definitely go both ways, but the pick with the most value is without a doubt MAD Lions in this one. 

The crucial match between Fnatic and MAD Lions kicks off on Saturday, July 31.