On the last day of the Rumble Stage at the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational, MAD Lions needed one win to advance to the Knockout Stage. They succeeded in collecting that win against one of the favorites, Royal Never Give Up. After that, they fought Cloud9 in the last match but lost. 

After MAD Lions secured a spot in the semifinals, Marek “Humanoid” Brázda joined Olleh after the match and talked about MAD Lions in MSI 2021.

Hi Humanoid. Congratulations on getting to the semifinals. I’d like to start with talking about that last game with C9. You were really winning in the early game, but the game somehow turned into a fiesta and ended up losing the game. Why do you think that happened?

Well, I actually have no idea what happened in this game. It felt like we were winning the bot and like we were really far ahead, and I got really fed. I don’t really remember how. But they had Ninja Tabi and Randuin’s and then I wasn’t really dealing that much damage then. And I think we were just looking for fights.

I guess since we were already qualified, we didn’t really… I mean, we played seriously, but I think we didn’t try to go for outplays and stuff like that. That kind of backfired and it was the game.

I was about to ask you that you played Lucian 4 times and won all of them. But somehow you lost a Lucian game against C9. Why do you think your opponents let you play Lucian?

Lucian is for sure, really strong, but there are some counterpicks. And there are also a lot of champions you have to ban, so you can’t always ban Lucian. But Lucian is pretty strong, so I’m glad to play him every game.

Did you expect Perkz to play Kalista?

Yeah. We scrimmed against them and they played it a few times against Lucian so I knew that he could play it.

In your previous interview with Jeesun, you said that C9 was unlucky. Why do you think they were unlucky?

We scrimmed them a lot, and I don’t think their result is what their actual strength is. They should be better than what the results show basically, so I think they should advance, normally.

What if C9 goes to the semifinals? Do you think they’ll do well?

Probably not. I think if they play against DWG KIA or RNG, they probably wouldn’t win.

How do you feel reaching the Knockout stage at this MSI?

Feels good! Yeah, we’re just going to have to play one or two more best-of-5s. And I’m going to have fun with that.

You guys were doing really well in the early stage but you fell a bit. Was there a problem or did the enemy just play well?

I think we weren’t just playing well as a team well. We were making plays on our own without involving everyone. That was our biggest problem in this game.

Were you confident that you’ll make it to the semifinals from the beginning?

I was pretty confident. Yeah, I would say that… We were doing pretty well in the group stage, so going in the Rumble Stage and today, we heard that we are at least up three in this tournament, so we were sure we would advance.

RNG seemed to look really strong, but today, you took down RNG to secure a spot. How was it possible?

I think in the RNG game, we managed to get the first blood at Level 1 on Viktor which kind of ruined his lane. And it was really hard for him to stop me from roaming. Then we managed to dive them sidelanes and then from that point, they were so far behind it was really hard to come back.

You said in a previous interview that you felt pressure for this MSI because MAD didn’t do well at the previous Worlds. Now that you’ve reached the semifinals, do you think you’ve satisfied the fans enough?

I guess, it’s for sure better than dropping out of play-ins at Worlds, right. That’s already a better showing so, yeah. I’m satisfied but not yet fully satisfied.

Do you think EU is better than NA?

Yeah, I think so.

This year, Perkz moved to NA. Before he moved to NA, he was like the king in EU. What do you think about his moving to NA?

I guess he wanted to try something new. I respect his choice. NA is for sure a lot of fun, so I guess it’s a good choice.

What were the most satisfying and the most disappointing things that happened?

The most satisfying was beating RNG. Actually, maybe it was killing Cloud9 in the first game. We just got three kills in the river and the game was just over. That was also satisfying. The bad moments, I don’t really know. I guess this game. [Laughs]. 

Who do you think will be your semifinal opponent?

*Ed. — This interview was conducted before DWG KIA selected MAD Lions.

DWG KIA is choosing, right? I would guess they’re going to choose PSG, but I’m not sure. We might play RNG. They can choose anyone. I don’t know what they are going to do.

Which team do you want to play against? RNG or DWG KIA?

I want to play DWG KIA. I watched their games a lot since they’re the world champions so I can’t feel more hyped to play DWG KIA than RNG, but both are really good.

The last question is, when I checked Korean websites, people are saying you’re really like a robot, HumaNOID.

Keep up the memes. I don’t mind anything. You can flame me, you can say anything you want about me. I would appreciate it and thank you guys for your support.