Lessons from the 2022 Mid– Season Invitational show clear power relationships in League of Legends. G2 Esports can’t compete against top teams like T1 or RNG.

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 of recent years was brought crashing down to earth in the World Championship final a few months later by FunPlus Phoenix with a resounding 3-0 defeat. A similar picture emerged last weekend in the MSI semifinals against T1 led by 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 representative of the LEC region, was defeated 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, causing 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 on a storybook 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, thus building up a big advantage. In addition, his teammates also presented themselves in better shape than the pros from G2 Esports. No matter if in one-on-one situations or in team fights: T1 almost always emerged as the winner.

Individually, T1 was better at all positions and punished 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 scoreboard also showed the T1 dominance: In Game 1 and 3 the LCK champion kept all turrets and served G2 in about 24 and 21 minutes. Only in Game 2 the LEC representative was able to take advantage of mistakes made by the opponent, but still had to admit defeat to the subsequent powerplay after losing a fight on Baron Nashor.

LCK and LPL settle the final between themselves

And North America? Despite an acceptable performance of LCS champion Evil Geniuses, the semi-final against LPL champion Royal Never Give Up (RNG) was still 0:3. 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.

Thus, 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 led by 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 fall. Between now and then, it will take much better game awareness at the right time for LEC teams like G2 Esports to defeat the top Asian teams from China and South Korea. This includes outplays in the form of ganks and properly initiated teamfights. Although the Rumble Stage saw a best-of-one win against each of the eventual finalists, the conditions look very different in best-of-five matches with significantly more time for preparation.

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