LoL Mid-Season Invitational – Knock-out stage preview
The Bracket Stage of MSI 2016 in Shanghai starts on 13 May with the Semi-finals before culminating in the Finals two days later. Four teams have made it through last week’s Group Stage: Royal Never Give Up (China), Counter Logic Gaming (North America), Flash Wolves (Taiwan) and SKT T1 (Korea). All matches will be played in a best-of-five format.
Let’s look at the Semi-final match-ups:
Royal Never Give Up vs SKT T1 – 13 May
Such was the nature of the Group Stage that this match-up would only have been predicted as a semi-final if you reversed the seeding. SKT were strong favourites to dominate the tournament, while doubts lingered over RNG’s ability to play on the International scene, mainly due to lacklustre performances from Chinese outfits in recent competitions.
Instead we have a very strong Chinese side with an 8-2 Group Stage record facing off against the current World Champions, who have themselves been underperforming for most of 2016 and only managed to secure a 6-4 record. The teams’ matches against each other in the Group Stage suggests this will be a very close best-of-five series, with each side besting the other once across the two games.
Conventional wisdom suggests that you never rule out a Korean side in an International tournament!
SKT have form for coming out on top in the best-of-five format – just ask the ROX Tigers, who they bested in Korea to earn their spot at MSI. That said, RNG have been the most impressive team at MSI thus far and if SKT are to progress, Mid-Laner Faker will need to improve drastically. He may be the best LoL player in the history of the game, but his substandard Azir games in the Group Stage cost his team. It’s to SKT’s credit that they were able to qualify despite this.
Key Match-up: Jungle
SKT Jungler Blank may struggle against RNG’s mlxg, who has been a real highlight for the Chinese team. Mlxg’s KDA of 9.7 is highly impressive, particularly when you put it side-by-side with Blank, whose 4.3 looks distinctly average by comparison.
Prediction:
RNG to win a tight series. It’s an incredibly tough match to call, and a week ago most people would have felt SKT had the upper-hand.
However, five days of gaming showed RNG’s strengths and SKT’s weaknesses and if RNG can capitalise on this and the energy of the home support, they should just about edge this.
CLG vs Flash Wolves – 14 May
Two teams that are constantly underestimated, they’ll be sure to give each other plenty of respect after strong showings from both of them in the Group Stage.
This is an interesting match-up – CLG were victorious over Flash Wolves both times they faced off in the Group Stage and will be confident of winning again. On the other hand, Flash Wolves took two games from World Champions SKT and are perhaps the best team their region has seen for a while.
On individual skill, Flash Wolves are better man-for-man, but the teamwork, decision-making and communication of CLG are making fools of their doubters.
CLG’s Stixxay has been one of the breakout stars of the tournament so far, drawing bans onto his Caitlyn, a character rarely considered troubling enough to remove from the Rift. He is matched though by the Flash Wolves’ Maple, a playmaking Mid-Laner who has carried his team this far.
Key Match-up: Mid-Lane
This is a mismatch if you look at the statistics across the entirety of the Group Stage. Maple has dominated his opposition multiple times, while HuHi has perhaps been the weak link for CLG. However, contrary to that, two of HuHi’s best performances have been against Flash Wolves, while Maple stuttered the second time they met. Whichever player performs on the day could decide which team progresses to the final.
Prediction:
CLG’s success thus far in the tournament is largely down to the convincing nature of their wins over Flash Wolves. While we would expect the latter to improve during a best-of-five series, there is a certain sense that CLG have their number and are equipped to deal with them. CLG to win 3-1.
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