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 of the Rumble Stage, Day 2 has started, let's do a recap of the second day of the Rumble Stage’s games.
To start off day 2 of Rumble Stage we had G2 Esports (G2) looking to crush Evil Geniuses (EG) hopes of any position other than 4th in the Rumble Stage. Unfortunately for EG fans, G2 was very successful and EG once again lost to G2 for the 5th time so far at MSI. For this match, EG pulled out a Mordekaiser top lane which did not go well for them. EG’s top laner Impact ended the game 2/4/3 on the champion. Despite the top lane choice EG actually kept the game completely even in gold and objectives until 29 minutes when they lost a pivotal team fight at Baron, which G2 then used to take control of the map and win the game. G2 would push into EG’s base at 33 minutes and win the game 10k gold up with 16 kills to EG’s 8. This game was indicative of the fact that EG can stand up to the big guns like G2, but they still need to work on their team fighting skills before they can win.
For the second game of the night, we had Royal Never Give Up (RNG) squaring up against PSG Talon (PSG). Not a lot of fighting in this game, but PSG did manage to stay almost even with RNG until around 17 minutes when RNG’s gold lead started to spiral out of PSG’s control with RNG’s complete control of map objectives. By 24 minutes RNG was up 7k gold despite the kill score only being 6 to PSG’s 3! The game was a great display of RNG’s technical skill and macro capabilities but it was dull in the extreme. The game would end at 31 minutes with only 11 kills to 3 and the last 4 of RNG’s 11 kills were in the last 20 seconds of the game. I hope that going forward there aren’t many more games like this one in MSI since I almost fell asleep watching this one.
The third game of the day was SK Telecom T1 (T1) facing off against the Saigon Buffalos (SGB). Man, was this a stomp, T1 didn’t even treat SGB seriously, as T1’s jungler Oner, once again picked Vi to go up against SGB, and T1 still smashed them. Now, I love to see Vi in pro play again, and she isn’t a terrible champ, but she isn’t exactly a premium meta or even off-meta pick either. I think at this point Oner just likes playing her and T1 just doesn’t see SGB as a threat. Nevertheless, Oner used Vi to great effect in their win but the true MVP of the game was Zeus’s Gwen with whom he ended 7/1/8. The game as a whole ended in T1’s favor up 15k gold, with 20 kills to SGB’s 6. I’d love to see T1 pull out the Vi in the future against one of the better teams to see how they do with it then, but it may just be wishful thinking.
The middle game of day 2 was between PSG Talon and Evil Geniuses, and both teams were hoping to make a comeback from their earlier losses, as each team seems to be the other's competition for the fourth slot in the semi-finals. Unfortunately for PSG, it looks like EG may be taking that slot as EG utterly annihilated PSG! EG maintained complete control of the neutral objectives, getting every dragon and Baron ending the game at 34 minutes with Baron Buff, Cloud Soul, and 18 kills to PSG’s measly 3. I dream that EG keeps up their wins against the non-tier 1 teams so they can make it to the semi-finals, and currently, that dream is looking more realistic every day.
The second to last game of the night was a destined meeting of rivals between Royal Never Give up and SK Telecom T1. The game was insane, and exactly what everyone hoped to see. For the first 20 minutes, RNG and T1 traded kills and objectives back and forth in crazy bloody plays with T1 eking out a small 3k-ish gold lead. Then at 21 minutes T1 started Baron and rushed it down, but right after they got it, RNG came in and aced their team! From here the back and forth fighting continued with no lead truly taken until RNG got themselves the Baron at 28 minutes and then stole Elder Drake from T1 at 29 minutes! RNG would then push into T1’s base for the win at 32 minutes, ending this wild game with 24 kills to 14. This game was utterly absurd to watch but also not a great display of skill as both teams made multiple misplays and mistakes which is why the game kept going back and forth. If either team had been careful or cemented their lead the game would have ended much earlier, and possibly in T1’s favor. While I love the crazy games, I hope to see fewer mistakes in the future games between teams of this caliber.
The last game of the day was between G2 Esports and the Saigon Buffalos, and boy was it a doozy. G2 dominated SGB in the early game, but as the game was approaching the halfway mark SGB was clawing their way back up the cliff to be even in gold until G2 stomped on their hand sending them falling into the abyss! G2 completely grabbed the reigns at a 17-minute team fight that they won 3 for nothing! From there G2 would finish the game at 23 minutes with 22 kills to SGB’s 6. This game was a great one to end the night on as it was not only bloody as hell, we got an interesting flex comp from SGB with a Vayne top and a Vladamir/Senna bot. Hopefully, we can get some more cool picks in the rest of Rumble Stage.
