MSI 2022 Group Stage Day 3 Recap: Landslide Wins, Flashy Plays, & New Drafts
T1, G2, and RNG dominate while PSG, EG, and Saigon Buffalo also pick up wins on Day 3
Cover-Credits:
League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) 2022 resumed on Day 3 with two back-to-back Group C matches. Teams walked into today’s matchups with some interesting champion picks up their sleeves including new picks like Vayne, Evelynn, Draven, and Zed. Day 3 also saw T1, G2 Esports, and Royal Never Give Up (RNG) extend their winning streaks with dominant performances against their Group Stage opponents. The three teams have been playing the Group Stage matches like they are warm-up matches and have cemented their status as the favorites.
The following are the teams that picked up wins on Day 3:
PSG Talon (PSG) - Istanbul Wildcats vs PSG Talon
Royal Never Give Up (RNG) - RED Canids vs Royal Never Give Up
Saigon Buffalo (SGB) - Aze vs Saigon Buffalo
T1 - DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM) vs T1
Stomp, Speedrun, or whatever you call it
The two teams staring at the number two spot in Group C are Evil Geniuses (EG) and ORDER (ORD). However, after today’s quick rumble, EG pushed ORDER to the bottom of the table with a 24-minute victory. Even pocket picks like Nathan "Puma" Puma’s Vayne did not work well for ORD as the team got punished by Joseph Joon "jojopyun" Pyun, who seemed to be omnipresent on the map. With early pressure on ORD mid-laner Twisted Fate, EG was able to snowball its early game lead, and the Oceanic squad lost complete control of the map. At 21 minutes, EG pressed on its advantages and secured Baron buff, and marched into the base of ORDER. With the buffed-up minions, Evil Geniuses walked back into ORD’s base from the bottom side and destroyed the Nexus at 24:25 minutes.
G2 Esports styles on ORDER
Going into the match, G2 Esports were the clear favorites as it took on ORDER, which was 0-3 at that point. For the second time today, ORDER looked to pick up a win at MSI 2022 but G2 Esports did not let the dreams of ORDER manifest on the rift. G2 Esports defeated ORDER in 24 minutes and picked up its fourth straight win at MSI 2022. ORDER’s pocket picks – Evelynn, Zed, and Tryndamere – were no match for Rasmus "caPs" Borregaard Winther’s LeBlanc and Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski’s Wukong. ORDER once again faltered in the early game and let G2 completely dominate the Summoner’s Rift. The Baron Nashor at G2 secured at 22 minutes was the final nail in ORDER’s coffin.
PSG Talon picks up its first MSI 2022 win
PSG Talon (PSG) headed into Day 3 with a scoreline of 0-2 and had to secure a win to keep the hopes alive at MSI 2022. Luckily for the team, it came true as PSG Talon dismantled Istanbul Wildcats (IW) and sent it back to the drawing board in just over 23 minutes. The bottom lane was basically the host of multiple parties as both the teams decided to tower dive the enemy duo and force teleport plays. The early game gold was awfully close but Ling "Kaiwing" Kai Wing’s Renata enabled good team fights for the side of PSG and propelled the team to get a gold lead. PSG was able to secure the Baron buff thanks to a four-man Gnar ultimate by Su "Hanabi" Chia-Hsiang and ended the match soon after.
RNG toys with RED Canids
The match between Group B’s Royal Never Give Up (RNG) and RED Canids was bloody from start to finish. There were moments in the match where RED Canids was hopeful and picked up some juicy kills on the defending MSI champions. Though Alexandre "TitaN" Lima dos Santo picked up early kills on the Draven, he was shut down by Chen "GALA" Wei and MingShi "Ming" Sen-Ming. RNG started the steamroll once all its damage dealers picked up kills and items. At around 23 minutes, GALA showed mechanical prowess on the Lucian pick as he secured a Pentakill on the international stage.
Following this, as per textbook plays, RNG killed Baron Nashor and ended the game in 27 minutes and 42 seconds.
Saigon Buffalo asserts dominance
Saigon Buffalo (SGB) from Vietnam won the match against Team Aze in just over 20 minutes and announced that it was a tough contender for DetonatioN FocusMe in Group A. Both the teams traded non-stop blows in this match, however, SGB picked up a steady lead in terms of gold and kills. At 15-minutes in the game, it became pretty evident that Team Aze could not make a comeback. SGB used Rift Herald to break down the Nexus tower of Aze, recalled back to show some respect to its opponents. After picking up items from the shop, SGB returned to the base of Aze with a swarm of minions and took down the Nexus comfortably.
T1 has fun against DetonatioN FocusMe
T1 locked in Pyke for Ryu "Keria" Min-seok and also Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok’s signature LeBlanc pick against DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM). Right from the get-go, it looked like T1 was having fun in the match-up. Throughout the match, T1 members were dying unnecessary deaths in what seemed like disrespectful skirmishes.
But at 20 minutes, T1 still managed to have a lead of 10K with two dragons in its pocket. Soon, it turned to Baron Nashor after killing Yuta "Yutapon" Sugiura and Shunsuke "Evi" Murase. Yet again, Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong and Faker were caught off-guard and killed near the Baron pit. After a well-orchestrated team fight that started off with Moon "Oner" Hyeon-joon’s Wukong ult, T1 shut down DFM and ended the game in 24 minutes and 36 seconds.
Fans can watch Day 4 of MSI 2022 Group Stage when Group B teams go head-to-head live on LoLEsports and on the Twitch and Youtube channels of Riot Games.
