MAD Lions KOI’s rookie-filled roster had a comfortable start to their Worlds 2024 campaign, defeating Vietnam’s Vikings Esports in a 2-0 sweep to put themselves one more win away from the Main Event.
Bot laner David “Supa” Martínez spoke to the media following the win, revealing his thoughts on the solid drafts which saw MDK utilize four of the same champions in both games one and two.
Image credit: Riot Games
“We believe that our first draft was really good, so we kinda got surprised that they didn’t change anything or they didn’t want to adapt.
“I think we were happy with our thing. We didn’t believe they could counter us, so we just stuck to the plan. And we obviously don’t want to show more things if possible… So we are really happy that we didn’t show more things, and we [were] truly confident that our plan was good.”
He went on to dive deeper into his Jinx pick specifically, which his side blind picked in both matches.
“I think Jinx, we saw you can play with the laneswap, but you can play normally as well – the champion is pretty good after the buff… I think the champion’s super OP. They need to learn how to counter you and I think they tried in the second draft, but [it] didn’t work. But the champion is pretty OP if you can go ahead, and the laneswap worked really well so I’m happy.”
Having just made his international debut, Esports.net asked Supa how he felt competing in the usual Riot Games Arena in Berlin; whether it felt like any other LEC fixture and if there was a benefit from the comfort brought by familiar surroundings.
The Spaniard revealed that his team has, in fact, made moves in an attempt to give their preparation a different feel to usually, opting to stay in and practice from a hotel rather than their usual accommodation.
“We work a lot to make it feel like it’s Worlds. We are in a hotel, not scrimming in the office or from home. So we are trying to make it similar to [the usual] Worlds experience and enjoying playing from the hotel and all that Riot gives to us a lot.”
That said, Supa added that the appearance of the usual pre-game hype video/trailer did give him some nerves, “in a good way”, which added to the “Worlds experience”.
MAD Lions KOI now face PSG Talon in a qualification match on Friday where victory will book their Main Event spot.
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