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 3 recap and since Day 3 has started, let's do a recap of the third day's games.
A short point of note to start today's recap off with: Due to some latency issues that have been discovered in some of the games, a few matches have been declared void and need to be re-played! These are the reconfigured win-loss stats for the teams affected:
Red Canids (RED) : 1 - 1
Istanbul Wildcats : 1 - 1
PSG Talon (PSG) : 1 - 1
Royal Never Give Up (RNG) : 0 - 0
In our first game of the day, we had PSG Talon matching off against Red Canids. The game was essentially even for the first 22 minutes with not much of note happening. Then, all of a sudden PSG destroyed RED at a dragon fight completely acing their team with no deaths themselves. From there it was Barron, one more team fight, and then game. PSG finished the game with 14 kills to the 1 of RED. As the group stage nears its close it's becoming clear PSG are second in their group, only losing out to RNG.
After that match, we had Royal Never Give Up demolishing Istanbul Wildcats. The game started with RNG getting a double kill in the bot lane at level 1 and that set the tone for the rest of the game. RNG would go on to have by themselves OVER a kill a minute for the entire game ending the game at 23 minutes with 29 kills! In a complete display of utter dominance, RNG crushed the Wildcats!
Wildcats would then face PSG Talon in what is probably the slowest starting game of the day. A few scraps happened before midgame but were largely uneventful before both teams started to completely disregard map control or pressure just to meet at river and team fight, then the winning side would go on to apply barely any pressure on the map! Eventually, PSG managed to get Baron after winning a fight which they then finally used to apply enough map pressure to push and end the game… slowly. While the game was a show that PSG is better than Wildcats at coming back after losing a few fights, I couldn’t help but think how utterly crushed either side would have been by RNG if they had the opposing team comp in the same situation.
Speaking of RNG they were up next against the Red Canids. RNG smashed their way through RED pick after pick, after pick. And guess what? After having his previous Pentakill stolen by latency issues making the game invalid, GALA once again achieved a Pentakill completely smashing Red at a dragon fight with his Kai’sa. RNG would then finish the game at 20 minutes with 20 kills giving us a dancing Shelly by destroying the nexus with Rift Herald! A great game for RNG after having their last 3 wins rendered null due to latency issues.
Next, we had Red Canids versus the Istanbul Wildcats, with the Wildcats dearly hoping to find some light at the end of their tunnel of losses. Unfortunately, that tunnel is pitch black. RED completely crushed the Wildcats ending the game with 31 kills to 8 at 30 minutes! This means the Wildcats can no longer make it to the Rumble stage and are not effectively out of the tournament despite having some games to play left. The question is, will RED be able to make it to Rumble, or will PSG or RNG force them out?
The last game of the day was PSG Talon hoping to achieve a victory against Royal Never Give Up. They did not. RNG once again brought in the big V keeping their scorecard free of losses in the group stage. After RNG’s stomp of Red Canids earlier in the day they were looking unstoppable but PSG very nearly stopped them. PSG was able to keep the game even in terms of gold and even a tiny bit in the lead till 25 minutes when they attempted Barron, but RNG had an amazing Baron steal and turned the game around to win. In the end, PSG was able to show why they deserve second seat in their group; being able to stand up to RNG and give them a fight, even if they can’t win.
Well, that's it for Day 4’s matches, check out MSI here if you’re interested.
