The Invictus Gaming has avenged their loss against on Team Liquid at The League of Legends World Championship in their first rematch since MSI.
The group stage of the tournament started yesterday with the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational semifinals rematch between Team Liquid and Invictus Gaming.
Despite being determined to keep their winning record against IG, the Netherland team failed to do so in a crushing defeat.
Recall that IG was on top during their meeting at the MSI, recording a decisive 3-1 victory.
Meanwhile, the victory of the Dutch side has been described as fluke despite the success over their Chinese counterparts. The Dutch side is the four-time LCS champions but has not been impressive internationally. This has made a lot of fans not believe in them regarding their win against IG at MSI.
Today’s game was close from the start. The game quickly swung into IG’s favour due to the Chinese team’s pro-activity.
Although they didn’t necessarily lose in the draft phase, Liquid engages a straightforward, easy to execute teamfight composition using Xayah, Rakan, and Gragas. The move was countered by IG, with support Fiddlesticks and Vladimir in the top lane. With a lot of team fight potential at their disposal, IG was able to scale the hurdle.
Regardless of the team composition, Liquid began strongly as Jake “Xmithie” Puchero out-roamed IG jungler Lu “Leyan” Jue. Before Leyan could respond and right when his bot lane turned six, Jake “Xmithie” was on top. With help from the Rift Herald, Liquid built an early tower advantage, but the Chinese didn’t alow Liquid run over them easily.
IG displayed confidence as they slowly built a lead throughout the match as they were fearless in jumping on potential picks. Liquid constantly got into bad positions with every pick against the reigning World Champion. Impact tried to split bot during the midgame, but IG responded by two of Liquids mid towers and followed up by baiting Baron to force Impact’s teleport.
Liquid got forced into responding to IG’s movements at every turn, as IG’s team composition made things hard for Liquid to engage. IG was, however, able to easily re-engage with AOE damage from Fiddlesticks, Orianna, and Vladimir. IG continued to force Liquid into fights and ended the game after winning another Baron fight.
Since earning their World Championship title last year, IG has been on a decline. Gao “Ning” Zhen-Ning has not performed up to expectations during this LPL Summer Split and got replaced with Leyan.
The team was able to be part of the tournament after fighting through the regional finals because they finished seventh overall.
IG’s performance was suspect going into the group stage. But with the victory recorded against Liquid and being 2-0 in groups, Esport fans could be seeing a comeback from the previous champions.
Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed
