Day 5 of MSI started with G2, Evil Geniuses (EG), and Order wrapping up all the matches for their group. This did not end well for Order...
The day started off with Evil Geniuses playing G2. And man did EG go all out! The game lasted 40 minutes and EG showed they have what it takes to be taken seriously by the first seed teams. EG spent half the game trying to keep even in gold with G2 until they lost a Barron fight around 20 minutes. After that, G2 started to put on the pressure until EG’s AD carry Danny began to scale with his Jinx which let EG take over the game at a 32-minute Barron fight where they destroyed G2, got Barron, and started getting ahead themselves!
EG went on to push G2 into their base until an unfortunate misplay led to Danny being caught out at the river before a dragon fight! EG, who had no damage with their carry dead, was quickly demolished by G2 who then rushed down mid to win the game. No matter who you were rooting for, this was an awesome nail-biter of a game and an excellent display of skill for EG and G2.
Evil Geniuses was up next again, but this time they faced off against Order. This was just the start of Order’s horrible, no good, very bad day. In a game that was physically painful to watch, EG stomped Order into the dust. Yes, I’m always happy when North America does well at international events, but this game just felt like bullying. Order’s downfall began at the 1-minute 40-second mark when EG invaded Order's red buff and forced their jungler Kevy off it, making him expend all his summoners as well! From there, it just went from bad to worse for Kevy: EG’s jungler Inspired went on to take complete control of not just his own jungle but Kevy’s as well!
In some amazing gameplay, Inspired and EG had complete control over the map and just went on to decimate Order. By the end of the 23-minute match, EG was up by an absurdly high 20k gold with 24 kills to Order’s 5, and Inspired had OVER DOUBLE Kevy’s CS! The absurd degree to which Kevy was basically shut out of the game was the most memorable part of this domination. With this game, Order was officially out of the running for the Rumble stage and EG and G2 were confirmed to make it. There were still 4 more matches for these three teams, however.
The next match was G2 against a now out of the running Order and while Order would still lose the match it would be to less of a degree than the last one. Order would lose to G2’s interesting Nidalee jungle/Sion top poke/siege comp by 25 minutes, with 28 kills to 10. The game itself was not particularly eventful with good play all around by G2, accompanied by Order desperately trying to have some show of force. Another entry in Order bad day.
After that, we had G2 facing Evil Geniuses with EG hoping to somehow finally beat G2 in one of their four games of the group stage. They did not succeed. This game reminded me of a saying that I believe comes from the army: hurry up and wait. For the first 20 minutes of this game, there wasn’t a ton of action of the G2’s excellent play and a few picks on either side. At around 20 min G2 started winning hard and began crushing EG where we finally got to see some amazing plays by both teams and some epic team fights! Despite that though, the game still dragged on till 35 minutes when G2 won. Thus ended EG’s hopes of beating G2 in the group stage.
The next two games were Order against Evil Geniuses followed by G2, and Order's dream to come out of MSI with at least one win. This dream remained so and Order lost both games. Order would get smashed in the first game against EG 18 kills to 2 at 22 minutes and then again against G2 at 24 minutes with 20 kills to 4. In the end, it was a sad conclusion to Order's last day at MSI.
The last 3 games of the day all featured Royal Never Give Up (RNG), as they were all make-up matches due to Day 4’s discovery of latency issues disqualifying RNG’s first 3 games. RNG’s first match was against the Istanbul Wildcats who were already out of the Rumble. RNG ended the game at 25 minutes with 23 kills to 10, but it was a near miss as the Wildcats actually put up some amazing resistance at a final fight in their base, almost getting a surprise turnaround before RNG turned the fight around and destroyed the nexus.
RNG went up against PSG Talon (PSG) next, and RNG pulled out a Kalista/Shen Bot lane with a nocturne jungle for their team comp. It allowed RNG to utterly demolish PSG with 10 kills by 11 minutes. RNG would then win the game at 23 minutes with 26 kills to the 8 of PSG. The game was rather one-sided and PSG failed to show some of the skills they have previously displayed in the group stage.
RNG’s final game of the day was against the Red Canids (RED), leading to RNG’s final win of the night, and group stages, leaving them with a perfect record so far, much like G2. Despite a lengthy pause in the early game RNG kept up their momentum and stomped out RED winning the game! Despite this RED put up the most competition of the night dragging the game out to 30 minutes before their loss, despite being down 30 kills to 10. In the end, RNG leaves the group stage with a perfect record, and PSG will be joining them for the Rumble stage.
