It’s hard not to be excited about Schalke 04 and not only because they have miraculously completed their miracle run and are now in the contention for a World’s spot, but also because this team looks soo good.
Many things make Schalke such a strong team – at least in contrast to how they looked early into the season. One of the main factors is an extremely high level of confidence their players are showing and quite frankly, it’s hard to not be confident after the incredible performances they have shown, but most of all it’s Schalke’s mid laner Felix “Abbedagge” Braun and jungler Erberk “Gillius” Demir who are playing a pivotal role in their team’s success.
And it’s not only the German duo who are doing most of the heavy lifting. The whole squad is playing like a solid unit, while their strong drafts and calculated approach to the game make sure Schalke 04 will remain competitive in any game they enter.
While there are arguments to be made Schalke 04 are over-performing (and they might be), but once you reach that level of momentum, it’s very difficult to stop them. For that to happen, Schalke 04 will have to crash head-first into a very strong team who will humiliate them and put them in their place. Now, are MAD Lions such a team? Perhaps, but not necessarily.
MAD Lions had an excellent split (for the most part) and showed once more they are undoubtedly one of the strongest teams in the region. They even were the main favorites to win the regular season, but they started to slump towards the end which is likely because they felt too comfortable at the top of the leaderboard and because of the meta shift.
As seen towards the end of the split, MAD Lions were not looking nearly as strong as they did a few months ago and their 1-3 loss to G2 Esports only further proved MAD Lions have lost their spark, which made them so strong.
There is no denying that MAD Lions have very talented players on their roster, but they clearly lack consistency, which could be a huge problem in these series, especially considering just how consistent Schalke 04 players have been. Furthermore, MAD Lions’ drafts have looked a bit iffy as of late, which could turn around and bite, which leads me to believe that unlike what the odds might suggest, this game seems more like a fixture where MAD Lions are the ones who will need to come out with something unusual to win rather than Schalke 04 producing an upset.
Objectively, MAD Lions have shown a lot more throughout the season, but if we look solely at what we have seen from these two teams in the last couple of weeks, it’s Schalke who look significantly better. They’re a far more cohesive team than MAD who have fallen off hard so the betting odds make little to no sense to me, especially if we take into consideration MAD lost to Schalke at the start of the month. I still don’t expect a 3-0 from Schalke, but seeing them win would not surprise me one bit.
Schalke 04 to win – 2.20 at Bet365
