The “Royals Never Give Up”, representing the LPL, win 3 to 0 against the “Evil Geniuses” representing North America (LCS). The first victory was overwhelming; the second a little less, while the third really sweaty. Let’s go and see them again.
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A victory of the RNG was not so obvious, or rather: when you have opponents like the Evil Geniuses, you can not give anything for sure. The LCS representatives, albeit considered “Underdogs”, arrived in the semi-final with a 5-5 where they also count victories among the T1s (who beat the RNG themselves, during the last day of the Rumble Stage).
Jojopyun opens the day with a goliardic tweet (the kind he has enjoyed since the beginning of MSI): “sending xiaohu back to top lane today”. Xiaohu is the midlaner of the Royals with a past as a toplaner who, apparently, had not escaped the digs of the EG player. But let’s move on to the recap of the three games played.
First game: [RNG] 22 – 1 [EG]
MVP: RNG WEI (Jungler). The first game sees Impact’s Gangplank wasting flash in the very first few minutes, which will force him to first have a hard top lane start and then suffer a dive from Wei with Jarvan IV, Xiaohu with Galio and Bin with Gwen. He tries to support Jojopyun with a teleport to the tower but doesn’t make it in time. A little later, another dive against Impact where Corki (Jojopyun) and Nocturne (Inspired) will also die while in the bottom lane the Kai’sa of Gala and the Nautilus of Ming have only a decent advantage of farmed minions (about 2 waves plus) on Danny’s Xayah and Vulcan’s Leona.
An action by Inspired tries to give back to his companion Impact some gold to fill the gap with Bin but it ends in tragedy and from there it will soon be the defeat for the EGs. The RNGs win with an advantage of about 18,000 gold over the enemy at the end of the game, an abysmal gap, and only one death (that of Wei) against 22 of the NA team.
Second game: [EG] 15 – 19 [RNG]
MVP: RNG MING (Support). In the second game the drafts are more balanced and the EGs decide to take away from the enemies 3 previously played champions (including Xaiohu’s Galio and Bin’s Gwen). It will be 35 minutes (approximately) where the Royals’ support seems to be omnipresent with its 73.7% of Kill Partecipation, having put a hand on 14 of the 19 kills of their team.
The game, although it sees a less overflowing gap than before, is still in the hands of the RNG induced in some error by some decidedly more sprightly EGs!
Terzo game: [EG] 16 – 27 [RNG]
MVP: RNG XIAOHU (Midlaner). In the third and final game of the day, the RNGs sweat. The EGs have finally woken up and propose a draft similar to the previous one, except for the botlane that will change. The game will last about 43 minutes and is not only the funniest of the day, but one of the most beautiful of all the MSI. The EG recover an intricate early and then manage to stay not only even, but also to snatch some goals.
In the end, however, thanks to the late game that does not allow errors between inventories now full (or almost) and high respawn times, they yield in front of the Chinese giants.
The RNG in perspective of T1 vs G2
For the RNG, now in the final, the goal of the 3rd MSI won is definitely closer but, tomorrow (May 28) b the only two teams that were able to beat them during the event will clash: Faker’s T1 and the G2 of Caps. So, for the Royals, it’s still too early to rest on their laurels.
The hosts, the T1 represented by the LCK, are the favorites to enter the final, however the G2, represented by the LEC, are not as easy to beat as they have already amply demonstrated during the Rumble Stage by beating the Koreans. For all those interested, the first match will start at 10:00 Italian time.