Mid-Season Invitational – Group Stage Round-Up
The LoL Mid-Season Invitational Group Stage ended on Sunday as a quite thrilling five days of matches came to a close. Along the way we saw major upsets, with some teams performing well below expectations while other sides stepped up to the plate.
Let’s take a look at each of the teams and how they performed.
Royal Never Give Up – Group Stage Record – 8W-2L
After a year of Chinese teams underperforming in International tournaments, Royal Never Give Up finally showed us that the region is still alive and fighting.
While Edward Gaming were victorious at last year’s MSI, the region has struggled in subsequent World Championships and IEM events, with highly rated teams collapsing frequently.
This RNG team comprises two former World Champions in Koreans Mata and Looper, as well as exciting young Chinese talent who all set the MSI Group Stage alight with dominating team-fights and an adept understanding of the meta-game. This was of huge benefit as the latter is often considered a real weakness of Chinese teams. Jungler mlxg so far boasts the best Kill/Death/Assist ratio of any player present with 9.7, proving himself to be incredibly difficult to kill.
Counter Logic Gaming – Group Stage Record – 7W-3L
When speaking of their victory in the North American LCS Spring Split, Counter Logic Gaming clearly felt they had been consistently underestimated. They are now back-to-back winners in North America and on that stage at least, it’s unlikely that teams will be taking them lightly any more.
The International scene is a different matter however and once more they were tagged as an underdog side likely to find themselves at the lower end of the standings.
Instead (apart from dropping a game to IWC team SuperMassive) they proved that they not only have the teamwork and self-belief to be a top competitor but they also have the individual players capable of facing off against the very best in the world.
ADC Stixxay in particular has shown a propensity to ‘go off’ during a game by dominating late-game team-fights with his positional play and measured aggression. Stixxay is by far and away the kill leader of the tournament, with 73 kills to his name so far and 77% kill participation for the team.
Flash Wolves – Group Stage Record – 6W-4L
The team representing the perennially underrated LMS region, The Flash Wolves proved themselves to be anything but a pushover. Two resounding victories over World Champions SKT earned them a spot in the knock-out rounds of the tournament, while they convincingly beat both G2 and SuperMassive in their encounters too.
Mid-Laner Maple is the team’s undoubted superstar, with 79.2% kill participation highlighting his influence so far at MSI, while his KDA of 7.1 is bettered only by RNG’s mlxg.
SKT T1 – Group Stage Record – 6W-4L
The world champions came to MSI off the back of a mixed season in Korea’s LCK. They underwhelmed during the Regular Season to the point that their place in the play-offs was at one point in doubt. However, on eventually reaching the play-offs they put all teams that stood in their way to the sword. In the Final, they dominated over an ROX Tigers that were considered to be the best side in the world at the time to qualify for MSI.
Coming into MSI it was presumed that SKT were back to their best and would dominate. Instead a woeful Day 2 and 3 saw them lose four games in a row, while Mid-Laner Faker – considered the best LoL player in the game’s history – put in a couple of shockingly bad performances (at least by his incredibly high standards).
SKT rallied for the final two days of the Group Stage, but the opposition will be heartened by the fact they can clearly be defeated.
G2 eSports – Group Stage Record – 2W-8L
G2 eSports were supposed to be the next great EU team after dominating the competition in their rookie split in the EU LCS. They came to MSI with the hopes of the region behind them, but poor preparation and an angry fan backlash dashed all this.
G2 repeatedly made individual errors against some of the best teams in the world, who when given an inch took several yards each time.
At times their displays were embarrassing but they look young and hungry enough to come back from this disappointment. Jungler Trick was the EU LCS MVP for Spring, yet his over-aggression and reckless playmaking resulted in 39 deaths – the 2nd most of any player.
SuperMassive eSports – Group Stage Record – 1W-9L
The IWC team with just a fraction of the regional support of every other side played well at MSI, despite the gulf in talent between them and every other team in attendance. Beating an otherwise strong CLG side certainly turned heads, while Support player Dumbledoge showed some fearless playmaking on Summoner’s Rift. They can go home with their heads held high.
