Lessons from the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational show clear power relationships in League of Legends. G2 Esports can’t get it done against top teams like T1 or RNG.
A European World Champion in League of Legends currently seems more like wishful thinking than a realistic possibility. Although LEC record holders G2 Esports flashed their class several times at the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational in Busan, South Korea, there was no sign of it in the all-important semi-final against T1.
When G2 became the first European team to lift the MSI winners’ trophy in 2019, hopes for a triumph at Worlds began to germinate. However, arguably the most promising LEC team in recent years was brought crashing down to earth in the World Cup final a few months later by FunPlus Phoenix with a resounding 3-0 defeat. A similar picture emerged last weekend in the MSI semi-final against T1 with superstar Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. At no point did G2 have a chance to compete at the highest level.
caPs: “Many things went wrong today “
The best European team, the LEC region representative, was outclassed in all aspects against the South Koreans on Saturday. “A lot of things went wrong today,” admitted mid-laner Rasmus “caPs” Winther in the interview with Riot Games afterwards. The Danish star explained that T1 had a very strong early game, which caused the “snowball” effect known in LoL to happen several times. T1 took advantage of the early gold and level advantage to dominate the opposing champions.
Faker in particular put in a picture-perfect performance in the first game with Tristana on the mid-lane. The three-time world champion was always in the right place at the right time. After two early kills on the bottom lane he managed to destroy turret platings and also towers and thus built up a big advantage. In addition, his teammates also presented themselves in better form than the professionals from G2 Esports. No matter whether in one-on-one situations or in team fights: T1 almost always emerged victorious.
Individually, T1 was better in all positions and punished the European opponents for their aggressive approach in the early game on the bot lane. G2 wanted to focus on this part of the map, but the South Koreans struck ice-cold on the top lane at the same moment. The T1 dominance also became clear on the scoreboard: In Game 1 and 3, the LCK champion kept all the turrets and served G2 in around 24 and 21 minutes. Only in Game 2 was the LEC representative able to take advantage of mistakes made by his opponent, but still had to admit defeat to the subsequent powerplay after losing a fight on Baron Nashor.
LCK and LPL settle final between them
And North America? Despite an acceptable performance from LCS champions Evil Geniuses, they were also 0-3 down in the semi-finals against LPL champions Royal Never Give Up (RNG). Despite their own frustration, the Memelords in Europe thus still got their cause for “NA Bashing”, especially because G2 had won six out of six duels against EG in the Group Stage and Rumble Stage.
BACK TO BACK MSI CHAMPIONS! pic.twitter.com/bLzmDQ6W1e
– LoL Esports (@lolesports) May 29, 2022
So the fourth of seven MSI finals was: China vs South Korea. In this exciting match between RNG and T1, it was evident how close things can get at world class level. In the end, the Chinese top team around mid-laner Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao claimed a narrow 3:2 victory and is now the record winner of MSI tournaments with three titles.
There are just over four months left for the upcoming Worlds in North America in the autumn. Between now and then, it will take much better game awareness at the right time for LEC teams like G2 Esports to overcome the top Asian teams from China and South Korea. This includes outplays in the form of ganks and correctly initiated teamfights. Although there was a best-of-one win against the eventual finalists in the Rumble Stage, the conditions in best-of-five matches look very different with much more time for preparation.
