The Rumble Stage of League of Legends’ Mid Season Invitational has officially finished. It was definitely not a stage for the faint of heart, but after the dust settled, the major more recognized regions came out on top.
Royal Never Give Up, the champions of the LPL 2022 Spring Split as well as the current defending champions, came out swinging for the last day of the rumble stage. Thanks to this, the Chinese mammoths had the ability of choosing their opponents for the knockout stage first game series. The choice was between G2 Esports, T1, and Evil Geniuses, who finished below the chinese representatives after the end of Day 5 in the rumble stage. RNG has chosen its opponent, and the full schedule along with the dates have been set in stone.
Before continuing here are day 5’s rumble stage results:
1st-RNG 8-2
2nd-T1 7-3
3rd-G2 5-5
4th-Evil Geniuses 5-5
5th-PSG Talon 3-7
6th-Saigon Buffalo 2-8
As previously mentioned above, the teams that made it into the knockout stages are RNG, T1, G2 Esports, and Evil Geniuses. Since RNG was able to secure first seed, the LPL champions had the option to choose between any of the other three teams as their next opponent.
According to the report from LoL Esports, RNG chose Evil Geniuses as the semifinal opponent. This means G2 Esports and T1 will be playing on the other side of the bracket to earn a place in the Grand Finals on Sunday.
This is a choice I think most of the community saw coming as RNG chose a team that is definitely the weakest and least consistent amongst the three. T1 is definitely a hard one to pick in a Semi Final clash, especially with the recent turn in form.
Outside of that, G2 Esports had its uncertainties mainly within draft and in-game macro decisions; however if history has taught us something, it is that G2 Esports is always a threat when it comes to play offs and best of five scenarios. Nevertheless, any team is able to create and set up an upset in a best of three series. Most likely we will see special adaptations mainly within champion picks and overall approach to each game, as this time each team will only have to prepare for one team at a time.
Obviously there are two teams that need to present better performance either in preparation or gameplay, G2 Esports and Evil Geniuses respectively. G2 Esports main deficiency is the overall preparation and approach to the game, where inconsistent champion picks we saw in both the group and rumble stage might have to be kept outside of the next series.
Evil Geniuses on the other hand thanks to their consistent approach to the game have a regular expected champion pick plan. The northamerican team usually pursues a heavy teamfighting/engaging style of gameplay. Nonetheless, Evil Geniuses suffer from lack of proactivity and overall raw mechanics making them have a gold deficit in the early game on most games.
Lastly we will see how every team does at the semifinals on May 27th and 28th, while the finals will be held on May 29th.
