MAD Lions go undefeated in Fantasyexpo Champions to qualify for BLAST Showdown

The international squad cleared the tournament without dropping a single map.

MAD Lions have secured a spot at the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown after completing a clean run in Fantasyexpo EU Champions Fall, beating Into the Breach and Illuminar in the group stage best-of-ones before tallying 2-0 victories in the playoffs against Sprout in the semi-finals and FunPlus Phoenix in the final.

The squad under the orders of Jakub "⁠kuben⁠" Gurczyński, who currently sit right outside of the top 50 in the ranking, showed great form in the whole tournament. But they were particularly impressive in the playoffs as both of their rivals, Sprout and FunPlus Phoenix, are higher in the team ranking, sitting at No. 42 and No. 29, respectively.

MAD Lions will join Dignitas, Movistar Riders, ViCi and POGGERZ, as well as four more teams from the remaining qualifiers, six teams from BLAST Premier Fall Groups and two invited teams in the do-or-die Showdown bracket in October.

Woro2k was the highest-rated player at the event with a 1.36 rating

The series between the two finalists started off on Inferno, which FunPlus Phoenix picked, and it was Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg’s men who set the pace on the attack after winning the second round forcebuy and jumping to a 6-2 lead. But that would be it as Pere "⁠sausol⁠" Solsona Saumell and Volodymyr "⁠Woro2k⁠" Veletniuk put up strung performances to lift their tam on the defending side and bring it back around by halftime.

From there on out, and with a very strong Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius on the attacking side, MAD Lions went on to take control of the map, setting themselves up for victory with a 15-9 lead. FunPlus Phoenix put up one last defense in hopes of forcing overtime, but to no avail as jL and sausol turned a 2vs4 afterplant situation on B into victory, 16-12.

MAD Lions kept their foot on the gas in their own map pick, Ancient. Woro2k led the way on the attack with his AWP as he and his teammates picked up 13 out of the 15 rounds up for grabs before switching sides, going on to close proceedings on the CT side, 16-5, to secure their berth at the upcoming BLAST Premier Fall Showdown.

Fantasyexpo EU Champions Fall 2021 - BLAST Premier QualifierBest of 3 MAD LionsMatchpage 2 0 9th September 2021 FunPlus Phoenix 16Inferno 12 16Ancient 5

MAD Lions	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Volodymyr 'Woro2k' VeletniukWoro2k	50 - 25	+25	104.5	1.69
Justinas 'jL' LekaviciusjL	41 - 29	+12	81.1	1.26
Pere 'sausol' Solsona Saumellsausol	36 - 27	+9	86.2	1.26
Thomas 'TMB' BundsbækTMB	33 - 34	-1	75.4	1.08
Johannes 'b0RUP' Borupb0RUP	27 - 32	-5	64.2	0.97

FunPlus Phoenix	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Pavle 'Maden' BoškovićMaden	33 - 39	-6	80.6	1.01
Asger 'Farlig' JensenFarlig	30 - 41	-11	65.5	0.87
Luka 'emi' Vukovićemi	31 - 38	-7	70.4	0.84
Jesse 'zehN' LinjalazehN	23 - 38	-15	63.8	0.78
Martin 'STYKO' StykSTYKO	28 - 33	-5	63.7	0.77

The final Fantasyexpo EU Champions Fall standings are:

1. MAD Lions - BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2021
2. FunPlus Phoenix
3-4. DBL PONEY
3-4. Sprout
5-6. Coalesce
5-6. Illuminar
7-8. PACT
7-8. Into the Breach

The team list for BLAST Premier Fall Showdown is currently:

Movistar Riders
ViCi
MAD Lions
FiReLEAGUE Latin Power
Fall Groups
Fall Groups
Fall Groups
InvitedPOGGERZ
Dignitas
Eastern Europe Masters
Fragadelphia Qualifier
Fall Groups
Fall Groups
Fall Groups
InvitedInto the Breach #120 Yaroslav 'isk' IssakovKirk 'Tadpole' StephensAdam 'Adam9130' AhmadCai 'CYPHER' Watson Jakub 'kuben' Gurczyński Age: 33 Team: MAD LionsC Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius Age: 21 Team: MAD Lions Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 135 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.65 Sprout #42 Rasmus 'raalz' SteensborgTimo 'Spiidi' RichterMarko 'kressy' ĐorđevićJosef 'faveN' BaumannFritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich POGGERZ #151 Nikola 'Lobanjica' MijomanovićTim 'nawwk' JonassonShuaib 'D0cC' AhmadAhmad 'SpAwNnS' KanaanKais 'KD69z' Abduljawad Jonatan 'Devilwalk' Lundberg Age: 30 Team: FunPlus PhoenixC Movistar Riders #47 Alejandro 'alex' MasanetAlejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo CanoRaúl 'DeathZz' Jordán NietoÁlvaro 'SunPayus' GarcíaDavid 'dav1g' Granado Bermudo FunPlus Phoenix #29 Jesse 'zehN' LinjalaLuka 'emi' VukovićMartin 'STYKO' StykPavle 'Maden' BoškovićAsger 'Farlig' Jensen PACT #67 Jacek 'MINISE' JeziakPaweł 'reatz' JańczakDawid 'lunAtic' CieślakKamil 'Sobol' SobolewskiBartosz 'bnox' Niebisz Volodymyr 'Woro2k' Veletniuk Age: 20 Team: MAD Lions Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 135 KPR: 0.81 DPR: 0.65 MAD Lions #51 Johannes 'b0RUP' BorupThomas 'TMB' BundsbækVolodymyr 'Woro2k' VeletniukPere 'sausol' Solsona SaumellJustinas 'jL' Lekavicius Dignitas #36 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergAdam 'friberg' FribergJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonHåkon 'hallzerk' FjærliLudvig 'HEAP' Alonso POGGERZ #151 Nikola 'Lobanjica' MijomanovićTim 'nawwk' JonassonShuaib 'D0cC' AhmadAhmad 'SpAwNnS' KanaanKais 'KD69z' Abduljawad DBL PONEY #30 Alexandre 'bodyy' PianaroLucas 'Lucky' ChastangThomas 'Djoko' PavoniPierre 'Ex3rcice' BulingeAurélien 'afro' Drapier ViCi #57 Zhuo 'advent' LiangWeiJie 'zhokiNg' ZhongZhiHong 'aumaN' LiuAndrew 'kaze' KhongYi 'JamYoung' Yang Illuminar #138 Oskar 'oskarish' StenborowskiTomasz 'tomiko' UrodaMartin 'maaryy' NakoniecznyBłażej 'zaNNN' BączkowskiŁukasz 'mwlky' Pachucki Pere 'sausol' Solsona Saumell Age: 21 Team: MAD Lions Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 151 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.66 Coalesce #121 Tom 'arTisT' ClarkeMatas 'Extinct' StrumilaCallum 'Girafffe' JonesSebastian 'volt' MaloșTim 'TIMMO' Musters