For fans of League of Legends, the Mid-Season Invitational or MSI started on May 10th. You can check out our article about the event here if you are interested. Following our Day 1 recap and since Day 2 has started, let's do a recap of the second day's games.
To start off Day 2 of MSI we had G2 and Evil Geniuses (EG) squaring off again for game two. Man, was the game amazing and incredibly disappointing as well! G2 once again held the lead for the first half of the game getting a fairly large gold lead, however, EG had an amazing turnaround at a baron fight where they not only stole baron off G2 but then proceed to clean them up and charge to their base with baron buff! Unfortunately for North America fans, an EG win was not to be, for while the baron fight tied the gold scores and led to EG pressuring G2’s base and getting all 3 inhibitors, EG threw a fight on their final push into G2’s base leaving their AD carry Danny open for the enemy to destroy, which then led to G2 acing EG and then destroying their base for a victory before they could respawn! Such is the life of a North American League fan - constant disappointment.
On the other hand, after an embarrassing defeat to G2, EG then went on to fight Oceania’s Order and proceeded to crush them ending the game with 22 kills to the 5 of Order! While not incredibly impressive considering the size of the Oceania league and relative inexperience at international events, it was at least a saving grace from total embarrassment and shows some hope for North America to place second in their group so they can move to the next stage of the tournament. In the game itself, EG showed objective control and map awareness that had been lacking in their previous games against G2. The best part of the game, however, was when EG’s support Vulcan, while playing the champion Leona, was sent flying up off the screen by a bug when the character was hit with a knockup effect! This bug related to knockup effects while relatively rare in League of Legends is well known by the community, and it's always funny to see a champion fall down from offscreen after their journey to the moon! The game while relatively uneventful will definitely have that moment in all the MSI highlight reels. Or as a commentator put it: Leona to the moooon!
Up next was Detonation Focus Me (DFM) versus the Saigon Buffalos (SGB). This game got bonkers halfway through! DFM had control for the first half of the game and were taking picks of SGB’s top and bottom lanes when they got them. Just as the laneing phase was ending both teams were positioning themselves in mid-lane getting ready for a fight. SGB had managed to stay close in terms of gold to DFM despite being pushed hard in the early game and were able to expertly pick off DFM’s AD carry Yutapon and then get Barron of that pick. That led to them gaining the lead in pressure and tying the gold. From there it was a slow but inevitable push into DFM’s base towards victory! SGB managed to show that despite their inexperience they can still win against teams that may be above them in the standings.
The next game between SK Telecom T1 (T1) and Team Aze (Aze) just hurt to watch. T1 utterly stomped Aze into the ground. T1 ended the game in just 20 minutes with 24 kills, that's over a kill a minute! T1 proved they are some of the undisputed champs in their domination of Aze. The game was a stomp, nothing special aside from that except for the interesting draft that T1 pulled out with the rarely seen Kindred jungle and Senna/Wukong Bot lane. The Kindred pick actually paired quite well with their Gwen top lane with both champion’s invulnerability fields. Overall T1 showed no matter which position they can all rack up the kills!
The penultimate match was the Istanbul Wildcats versus the Red Canids and what a seesaw that was, back and forth and back and forth! But for all the give and take the game itself was rather uneventful with little total action. One side would make a mistake then the other would take advantage and gain some ground but then lose that ground and some of their own with a mistake themselves! This went on until the Wildcats managed to wipe Red Canids in a team fight that by all means, Wildcats should have lost due to a complete lack of vision to start the fight off. After that ace Wildcats then stormed the base and won while Red Canids were still unable to respawn. While an even back and forth game is often rare in League, this one felt more due to each team's own misplays rather than skill on either side. Hopefully, we can see some improvement from both teams before MSI is done.
For the last match of the day, we had Royal Never Give Up (RNG) against PSG Talon (PSG). RNG kicked the game off with an amazing invasion of PSG’s jungle gaining themselves a double kill and stealing blue buff! RNG would go on to completely control the map and objectives for the rest of the game until they won at 28 minutes. However, despite RNG’s control, PSG was able to fight back and fend off RNG in multiple team fights despite being behind in gold, until their eventual defeat. This game was an excellent example of RNG’s skill and supremacy but PSG managed to prove their own incredible abilities by extending the game as long as they did against the reigning champs of MSI. I look forward to seeing both teams in their upcoming matches.
Well, that's it for Day 2’s matches, check out MSI here if you’re interested.
