Day three of MSI brought us brilliance, bravado and the downright ridiculous. But SKT emerged unscathed yet again.
Day three of MSI groups started well for American fans. Svenskeren grabbed first blood in a mid lane gank and TSM started to slowly extend the lead they got from it. The first team team fight ended with four kills for TSM at the cost of just two deaths, giving them a 4,000 gold lead at the 20 minute point. The North American team continued to slowly bleed G2 to death but were still unable to close out despite getting a baron. And then things got weird. G2 managed to sneak a baron of their own, took down an inhibitor and massive reduced the gold deficit. Then TSM went for an elder drake but Perkz and Zven went into their base and very nearly ended the game.. Then trick tried to do the same thing and also died. WIth the entire enemy team now dead and some TSM members already in the G2 base the game was over and TSM had another win
SKT were up next, looking to continue their unbeaten run. Flash Wolves swapped their marksman and support to the top lane to get the first tower but it was Peanut’s Lee Sin - of course - who picked up first blood onto MMD who was trying to defend an inner tower. SKT now had a small lead which grew inevitably until the game was over. Flash Wolved didn’t concede many kills but neither were they able to stop SKT taking towers and dragons at will. Huni’s Fiora grabbed a solo kill onto MMD late in the game, which allowed his team to secure baron and the game was over after one lopsided team fight.
Gigabyte Marines continued to to flip-flop between the crazy and the divine with a win over World Elite. They took a small lead early on after a messy fight in the bot lane and just never let it slip. Late in the game hey grabbed themselves a baron but were forced out of the enemy base. They returned, Levi’s Kha’zix grabbed himself a quadra kill and the Marines were looking solid again.
G2 had yet to have a truly convincing performance at MSI but against Flash Wolves they finally got that monkey off their back. They came out of the gates flying and with eight kills in the first 15 minutes, they had themselves an 8,000 gold lead. Flash Wolves were limited to just a single kill in the whole game and the European side put their opponents out of their misery with just 27 minutes played.
But if you thought that game was one-sided, SKT were about to show you just how one-sided a professional game can really be. Peanut has been the star of MSI so far and this was his brightest moment yet. He utterly dominated the game from start to finish and ended it on 14/1/4. Gigabyte Marines’ sloppy play helped him out but do yourself a favour and check out the highlight reels on youtube. SKT remain undefeated and Peanut is looking inhuman right now.
TSM closed out the night against World Elite but were unable to close out a win, despite taking an early lead. Trading turrets in the mid game gave the Chinese a lead of their own after the first team fight went 4-0 in their favour. The next team fight led to a baron for WE and a 7,000 gold lead. They weren’t quite able to end the game there and then but when Svenskeren got caught out for what seemed like the hundredth time at this tournament, WE picked up two kills and another baron. This time they made no mistake and were able to clean up the game for their third win.
Unsurprisingly, SKT currently sits atop the group with six wins and no losses. G2 and WE are tied for second on 3-3 while the remaining teams are all on 2-4. First place is already secured for the Koreans, but everything else is still up for grabs with two playdays left.
