RNG Starts From Scratch On Day 4 of MSI 2022 With Win Over Istanbul Wildcats

The second game of Day 4 of the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) 2022 was between Royal Never Give Up (RNG) and Istanbul Wildcats (IW). Walking into the matchup, RNG was starting afresh since all three of its previous games were declared null by Riot Games to uphold the competitive integrity of the tournament. As a result, IW was looking to rewrite the older result by winning against RNG. However, RNG once again proved its dominance on the Summoner’s Rift. RNG won the first match of Day 4 in just over 23 minutes and picked up its first official win of the tournament.

RNG now stands in Group B with a score of 1-0, whereas, IW is now 1-2. Notably, this match was one of the bloodiest ones at MSI 2022 with 24 kills on board in 14 minutes. The previous record for the bloodiest game at MSI this year had a record of 17 kills only.

RNG stomps IW

After an over-extension by Berk "Farfetch" Badur on the Pyke, Chen "GALA" Wei picked up a double kill on the bottom lane, thanks to Shi "Ming" Sen-Ming’s Leona. There were no crazy cross-map plays in this match because the solo laners of both the teams opted for summoner spell ignite. At 5.35 minutes, there were kills across the map with RNG picking up the majority of them and IW responding with one kill under its belt.

At 7 minutes in-game, RNG was ahead by 2K gold with six kills in its pockets. After a good fight on the top side, which RNG disrespected, IW collected a few kills on its jungler Hakan "Ferret" Mert Çakmak and marksman Anıl "HolyPhoenix" Işık. However, Li "Xiaohu" Yuan-Hao and Chen "Bin" Ze-Bin bullied IW, pushing the team further behind.

Even Soner "StarScreen" Kaya’s Vladimir, a counter to the Gangplank, was completely shut down and at 19.50 minutes, RNG aced the IW and cracked open the base of the TCL representatives. RNG made use of its 10K gold lead and translated it into the third dragon of the game.

IW’s game plan was to go toe-to-toe against the LPL representative but RNG was too far ahead and was no match. At 22 minutes, RNG sieged the bottom inhibitor tower and slaughtered IW in a dominant fashion.

RNG took down the nexus of IW at 23.16 minutes in the game. Despite a tough loss, there were moments in the game where IW responded and tried to fight back valiantly. Perhaps tomorrow they can harness this momentum, to turn things around in its favor when their group stage run concludes.