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 4 recap of the Rumble Stage, Day 5 has started, let's do a recap of the fifth and final day of the Rumble Stage’s games.
To start off the last day of the Rumble Stage, G2 E-Sports (G2) would face the Saigon Buffalos (SGB) in what would be SGB’s last game of MSI. The game was insane, SGB popped off and completely destroyed G2 despite the fact that this game meant nothing to SGB since they’ve already lost too many games to qualify for the semi-finals! SGB didn’t let that stop them from pulling out all the stops with a flexed Gwen jungle by BeanJ that got incredibly fed and was a large contributor to SGB’s win. SGB ended the game at 25 minutes with 18 kills to G2’s 7 up 10k gold with Baron Buff and 3 dragons! Despite SGB’s amazing performance, they remain out of the running for the semi-finals whereas G2 can still make it if certain conditions are met.
For the second game of the night, we had Evil Geniuses (EG) battling PSG Talon (PSG), each in danger of losing their chance at the semi-finals. To quote Harry Potter neither could live while the other survives. With this game EG won, pushing PSG to their last leg of contention for the semi-finals, one more loss, and that's it! At first, the game wasn’t going so well for EG, they lost the draft to PSG, and PSG was able to get the advantage in the first 10 minutes. Unfortunately for PSG, EG was able to win 2 team fights which got their Mid and AD Carry fed from which they snowballed the game. After those fights, the game was over and EG was able to end the game at 29 minutes with 22 kills to PSG’s 5 with a 17k gold lead! Now with PSG out of contention for the semi-finals, all that's left for EG is to see if they can be better than fourth place.
Game three was between the Saigon Buffalos (SGB) fighting SK Telecom T1 (T1), trying their best to get one final win before the end of MSI.T1 utterly destroyed SGB from start to finish! T1 had complete control of the game from the start and took over the map and any objectives on it! SGB could do nothing in their final game of MSI but get pushed into their base and lose. T1 ended the game at 23 minutes 24 kills to 9 and up 16k gold! T1 goes forward feeling pretty secure in their position for the semi-finals as SGB bids farewell to MSI.
Starting the second half of Rumble Stage Day 5’s games was PSG Talon versus Royal Never Give Up (RNG). This game was PSG’s last hope to make it to the semi-finals and they failed terribly! After RNG got an early level 1 first blood and a flash, the game just kept tipping more and more into their favor. RNG had complete control over the game and objectives, ending the match and PSG’s hopes of semi-finals by 26 minutes with 22 kills to 3, earth soul, baron buff, and a 15k gold lead! With the game over PSG say goodbye to MSI.
In the penultimate game of the night, Evil Geniuses faced G2 E-Sports to decide which team would be third, and which would be fourth going into the semi-finals. EG actually had a small lead in the early game, but G2 was slowly clawing it back with dragons. The game was completely even until 26 minutes when G2 got a pick on EG’s support which let them get the Baron unopposed! This is when things started going badly for EG. G2 used Baron Buff to push into EG’s base getting two inhibitors by the time the buff was over and they reset! From there it was just a struggle for EG to stay alive against the super minion waves until 34 minutes when G2 forced a fight at Baron where they decimated EG and G2 ADC Flakked was able to get a Quadra Kill! G2 then pushed into EG’s base while they were all dead to win the game at 35 minutes. The final score was G2’s 14 kills to EG’s 10 but G2 did have a 10k gold lead. With this match, G2 cements their third-place spot going into the semi-finals.
All that was left was for Royal Never Give Up and SK Telecom T1 to fight it out even with their positions decided already as first and second respectively. T1 actually had control of the map for the entire game, but despite that, they were unable to build up an appreciable difference in gold. RNG was able to maintain complete gold equality for the entire game despite being on a losing footing which just goes to show how close these two teams are in skill! Finally, at 31 minutes T1 forced a fight at Baron which they won. From there T1 then quickly pushed into RNG’s base and won the game at 32 minutes with 12 kills to RNG’s 10 and only a 6k gold lead most of which was from the kills they just got from winning the Baron fight! This game was incredibly close and an amazing match to close out the Rumble Stage.
Next up: Semi-Finals!
