Cover-Credits:
The featured match of Day 4 of the Rumble Stage of the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) 2022 was between G2 Esports and T1. The Korean squad has not been having a great tournament on its home soil as it got outsmarted in the way of drafting many times in the Rumble phase. Given the fact that it was the second game of the day for both the teams and also that they had lost the first ones brutally, the teams had to shake off their nerves and get on to the Rift.
Both fans and analysts have spoken about the head-to-head between Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok and Rasmus "caPs" Borregaard Winther where caPs has straight-up won most of the games, but in this mano-a-mano Faker came out on top.
Having lost the first round to G2 and conceding its win streak, T1 was looking forward to taking a win against the European powerhouse and ended up doing just that. It looked like the T1 that everyone was used to seeing at the start of the year.
The common consensus was that the draft was pretty even on both sides with caPs getting his hands on his infamous LeBlanc and Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong on arguably his best champion – Aphelios.
First-blood for G2 Esports
First-blood king Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski picked up first blood on the top lane and also followed it up with a quick kill on Moon "Oner" Hyeon-joon. Again at 6 minutes, Jankos walked back to the top lane and killed Choi "Zeus" Woo-je who did not have Teleport. It was a bloodbath across the map and T1 seemingly lost all the fights. Gumayusi was dived underneath his tower since Ryu "Keria" Min-seok was spotted on the top lane. But T1 fought back valiantly by picking up the Ocean Dragon immediately and evened out the gold lead.
T1 answers back swiftly
T1 picked up multiple kills after a Herald play went awry for G2 Esports. Four members of T1 collapsed on Victor "Flakked" Lirola Tortosa and Raphaël "Targamas" Crabbé and picked up four kills. It seemed like, for the first time in the tournament, Gumayusi looked terrifying on Aphelios with the highest gold in the game with 7.3K in his pocket at 14 minutes. G2 Esports secured the dragon but lost its members and also the second Rift Herald. At 16 minutes, four damage dealers of the Korean roster had bounties over their heads. After picking off Sergen "Broken Blade" Çelik on the side lane, T1 summoned the Rift Herald and pushed down the bottom lane.
G2 kills Faker and trades inhibitor
It was very confusing to see G2 Esports dive Faker underneath his tower while its base was getting dismantled. Following this, T1 baited G2 into face-checking Baron Nashor and killed four people on the G2 roster, and ended the game in under 22 minutes. For the second day in a row, G2 lost both its games on the MSI 2022 stage. After winning four straight games at the Rumble Stage, the European squad is now in a downward spiral.
