In League of Legends, the MSI 2022 tournament turns out to be a strange event for European hopes G2 Esports. They managed to defeat the seemingly unbeatable giants from South Korea, T1, and the Chinese team RNG. In the first 2 days of the “Round Robin” stage, they won all 4 matches. But from Day 3, nothing went right in LoL. Now G2 has to fear for their place in the semi-finals: after a defeat against a small team and the loss of a long winning streak, G2 seems cursed.
What is being played right now? At MSI 2022, the 11 champions of the regions compete against each other in League of Legends.
In the preliminary round, there were 3 groups and the 3 teams from the major regions remained unbeaten in their groups:
- T1 from South Korea had not lost any series in 2022 and marched through the opponents at MSI without a hitch.
- The Chinese champions of RNG had to repeat 3 matches due to ping problems and complained about unfair treatment. However, they looked incredibly strong and didn’t show any weakness.
- G2 Esports were actually more like underdogs, but they played well and remained unbeaten. Before the tournament, G2 had also put together a long winning streak. Since the end of March, they had been unbeaten in a professional match.
After the preliminary round, the teams from the “smaller regions” were already eliminated, with only the 6 largest teams playing in the Rumble stage “Round Robin” to find the 4 best teams. In the Rumble stage, 4 teams from Asia made it, along with representatives from Europe and North America.
A new champion will soon join the fray in LoL:
G2 wins the first 4 matches – even against the powerhouse teams
This is how strangely it went for G2: The Europeans from G2 had announced before the tournament that they desperately wanted to win against T1, the stars of LoL, who hadn’t lost anything all year.
And indeed, G2 achieved this: In the first days of the Rumble stage, G2 was able to defeat both giants from Asia: both RNG and T1 fell to the European champions.
In doing so, G2 managed to defeat the seemingly strong T1 despite falling hopelessly behind in the early phase. After 20 minutes, G2 was missing 5,800 gold.
But the team combination of Yasuo, Diana, Ornn, Kalista, and Rakan was overwhelmingly strong in team fights, and G2 was able to win. T1 vowed, as usual, to take terrible revenge on them.
Then G2 smashed RNG, the other favorites for the tournament victory, because it was just so nice. G2 banned Gangplank, for whom RNG was feared to play. G2 opted for an explosive team combination with Kai’Sa, Nautilus, Wukong, Vladimir, and Zoe.
This time, G2 was even able to keep up in the early game and make the game balanced until they could exploit their strengths in the mid and end game (via dotesports).
On Day 2, they also defeated the American Evil Geniuses and the Saigon Buffalos (Vietnam).
After Day 2, G2 stood out with a brilliant 4-0.
After 24 consecutive wins, they lose once and seem cursed
What happened next? Now you might think: things are going smoothly for G2, as they have defeated both tournament favorites and dominated the first 2 days. G2 had a winning streak of 24 matches across tournaments, as they had also dominated in Europe. The last time G2 lost was on March 26.
But on Day 3, the curse began: Against PSG Talon, a team from Hong Kong, they suffered their first tournament defeat. After that, nothing went right.
The rematches against G2, again against PSG and against T1 were lost.
G2 is now at 4-4 and could still be eliminated if the losing streak continues. Both Evil Geniuses (4-4) and PSG Talon (3-5) could still surpass them if G2 continues to struggle like this.
On the last day, it will be decided whether they continue. G2 must face the Saigon Buffalos and Evil Geniuses, both of which should be manageable tasks, but in 2022, anything seems possible for G2.
G2 loses to absolute underdog
Update May 24, 9:30 AM: G2 has actually lost to Saigon Buffalos, and it seems to come down to a decisive match against Evil Geniuses.
For the Americans, it would be a special honor to kick G2 out of the tournament in a decisive battle:
For the Americans, it would be a special honor to kick G2 out of the tournament in a decisive battle:
