T1 Bounces Back With Solid Win Against EG At MSI 2022 Rumble Day 3

The first match of the MSI 2022 Rumble Stage Day 3 kicked off with T1 and Evil Geniuses (EG)going head-to-head in a battle for the third spot on the table. Going into the matchup, both teams were tied in with a score of 2-2. After dropping games to both Royal Never Give Up (RNG) and G2 Esports, T1 had to get back to winning ways with a victory against the North American (NA) squad. For the side of EG and Jeong "Impact" Eon-young, it was all about getting one over old teammate Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok.

However, T1 emerged victorious despite a shaky start to the game with a lot riding on the shoulders of its bot lane. Over the last two days, Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong and Ryu "Keria" Min-seok, who were called the best bot-lane duo in the world, were getting picked apart by the major region teams like G2 and RNG. With a Senna, Nautilus bot-lane, it was evident that T1 was playing for the late game but the duo still had glaring mistakes.

The picks were pretty standard with both teams going for picks like Twisted Fate, his counter Sylas, Gwen, and Gangplank among others.

Jojopyun talks about versing Faker

In the post-game interview, Joseph Joon "jojopyun" Pyun called Faker the greatest player of all time and it was a good feeling to finally face him. Talking about the turning point in the game, jojopyun said, “I felt like we were in a good spot and the bot fight kind of did not work out. Also, the fight before the dragon. We kind of got sh** on, so. After those two fights, the game became too hard.”

Jojopyun also compared playing in North America to how it felt going up against veterans on an international stage. He stated that he has to think about his moves in advance at MSI 2022 and can’t afford to be on auto-pilot like most players are in NA. “It’s great that I’m really put to the test and I think I’ve learned a lot. So, it’s been good.”

T1 gets early advantages

Choi "Zeus" Woo-je picked up the first blood kill on Impact’s Gwen at 9.30 but soon after EG was caught in a bad position and was punished for it by jojopyun and Kacper "Inspired" Słoma. However, T1 collected the first tower gold and also the Hextech Dragon. In the early game, after capitalizing on crucial mistakes by T1, Kyle "Danny" Sakamaki was stacking kills on Ezreal.

At 22 minutes, a massive team fight broke out in the mid-lane and T1 wiped the floor with EG. Baron went over to the Korean side and EG traded dragon for the buff and stalled T1’s soul point. The Baron power play propelled T1’s gold lead by 8K. At 24 minutes, T1 broke open the base of Evil Geniuses and ended the game soon after.