T1 Continues Winning Streak Against Saigon Buffalo At MSI 2022

MSI 2022 kicked off on 10th May with the first match featuring League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) juggernaut T1 and Vietnam Championship Series’ (VCS) Saigon Buffalo (SGB). Notably, the teams will be playing on 35 ms to maintain the competitive integrity of MSI 2022 and the matches will be played on LoL Patch 12.8, which was released with the target of shaking up the pro play meta.

Saigon Buffalo, the second seed from the VCS, is the youngest roster present at the tournament. But walking into the first match, T1 was heavily favored for obvious reasons. The LCK 2022 Spring champion got its hands on Gwen, Vi, Twisted Fate, Lucian, and Nami. SGB picked up Kennen, Wukong, Sylas, Tristana, and Alistar.

Bloodbath of a start in the bot lane

Contrary to the expectations of the community, Saigon Buffalo’s bot-lane duo came out ahead against T1’s bot. At 6 minutes in-game, SGB’s attack damage carry (ADC) Nguyễn "Shogun" Văn Huy on the Tristana had secured three kills, preventing the rampage that Lucian and Nami usually dished out. Despite a couple of kills on Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong’s Lucian, the Tristana continued to be a problem on the Summoner’s Rift. Shogun and Đinh "Taki" Anh Tài even picked up the first tower gold in the bottom lane.

T1’s top-side shows prowess

Choi "Zeus" Woo-je on Gwen and Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok on Twisted Fate constantly threatened SGB. Moon "Oner" Hyeon-joon also picked up the Rift Herald. At around 18 minutes, SGB started a massive team fight on top lane with Lâm "Hasmed" Huỳnh Gia Huy flanking on Kennen. However, T1 sensed it and played it out really well. At 21 minutes, T1 picked up the Baron Nashor buff and extended its gold lead by 8K. Soon after, T1 broke open SGB’s base and even destroyed one of the nexus towers on the red side.

T1 closes out Game 1 at MSI 2022

At 23 minutes, T1 broke two out of the three inhibitors and picked up a couple of kills on SGB’s base. SGB’s only winning hope was to get a good Kennen flank but unfortunately for the team, the map was fully dark sans vision for a teleport play to happen. While SGB killed Lucian on the top side, Gwen walked into the base and ended the game.

Though T1 picked up a convincing win at 26 minutes, the team was very shaky at the start of it. It seemed like Saigon Buffalo’s nerves got the better of the team.