The fourth round of the group stage of Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) 2019 came to and end on Monday. With the results, Invictus Gaming, G2 Esports and SK Telecom T1 have secured an early berth in the playoffs. Team Liquid and Flash Wolves are still in contention for fourth place in the semifinals. Phong Vũ Buffalo was mathematically eliminated. The fifth and final round will be played later today.
Duel of titans
The fourth round was marked by an extremely close game between Invictus Gaming and G2 Esports. The two best teams of the tournament didn’t give each other any breathing room when it came to taking objectives, kills and accumulating gold and experience. The match was settled only in the final minutes.
With 29 minutes of play, the Europeans invaded the opponent base, and destroyed the bot lane inhibitor, they were moments away from victory. The Chinese, however, made a remarkable play in the dying minutes. In a 4v5 fight, the IG side scored an ace and killed off the Baron to turn the game in their favor. Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski and Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo were the stars of the showdown. At the end of the fourth round, G2 Esports and Invictus Gaming were at the top of the standings.
@G2esports You scared us there! pic.twitter.com/ABC8UxyeuK
— Invictus Gaming (@invgaming) May 13, 2019
Faker in the semifinals
The most successful League of Legends athlete of all time, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok helped SK Telecom T1 secure a spot n the knockout phase of the MSI. The three-time world champions defeated Flash Wolves and Phong Vũ Buffalo on Monday and have won the same number of games as G2 Esports.
Known for its slow pace of play, SKT was patient to close both games. Against Flash Wolves, the Asian lineup was quick to secure the Herald, the dragons, two Barons, even with an absurd advantage in gold, only confirmed the victory with 31 minute on the clock. Against Phong Vũ Buffalo, the team needed 26 minutes to eliminate the team out of the competition.
Early farewell
Phong Vũ Buffalo witnessed two more losses and bid farewell to the championship. The Vietnamese will still have two more game ahead of them, but they are virtually eliminated – with no mathematical chances of qualifying. On this fourth day of competition, the team lost to Team Liquid and SK Telecom T1.
Altogether, there are seven defeats in eight matches played so far. Thei attributes to a team’s worst performance in the current edition. Despite the support of the local fans, the hosts failed to repeat the good performances of the entry phase. It is worth remembering that the side composed of Zeros, Meliodas, Naul, BigKoro and Palette played the play-in before reaching the main event. They had a decent run in the competition but it seems like they were unable to compete against some of the best teams in the world. We really see no hope for them in the upcoming games. But games are not fought on paper, they might just win their upcoming but it is no possibility that they will make it to the playoffs.
