Image: Riot Games
The final day of the Rumble Stage is here, and G2 Esports might be in trouble.
The Rumble Stage is ending today with a series of matches to decide which teams will advance to the Knockout Stage, and which teams will get eliminated from the competition altogether. Saigon Buffalo has sadly been eliminated as of yesterday, but it looks like either G2 Esports or PSG Talon won’t make the Knockout Stage either. On the other hand, T1 and Evil Geniuses have secured their spots in the semifinals. Here’s a recap of today's first two matches.
The first game of the day saw SGB take on G2. SGB finally managed to pick up a win yesterday and while this might seem like an unfavourable matchup for them at first glance, G2 has been on a wild losing streak for two days in a row now. SGB could actually stand a chance here, and a few more wins would be nice for a team with so many losses weighing heavily on its shoulders.
SGB started off strong here, picking up a dragon and leading in kills in the early game. In a fight over a turret, SGB managed to pick up even more kills and an objective to boot, giving them a bigger gold lead. G2 was going to have to play catchup now. SGB picked up another midlane turret with four kills over G2, while G2 tried their best - somewhat unsuccessfully - to slow their progress down. Another dragon spawning led to a huge series of kills for SGB, where the team came out with a six-kill and 7k gold lead, with more objectives downed too.
For their last two games, SGB has played spectacularly in the early-to-mid game, and that pattern continued here. G2’s Jankos sacrificed himself to steal a dragon from SGB at the last minute. He got the job done, but it wasn’t enough - SGB decided to cut to the chase and lay siege to G2, and got the win. An epic win for SGB, and a pretty tough loss for G2. Fun fact: this win for SGB is also a win for T1, who have been locked in for the semifinals.
Next up, we got EG going up against PSG. Both teams played aggressively here, and by the 12-minute mark managed to tie in kills (3-3). No objectives were downed at this point, partly because these teams were mounting such a strong defense. Things fell apart for PSG when EG started downing turrets however, giving them a big gold lead in the late game. EG practically steamrolled PSG for the win here. PSG Talon is now in trouble in the bottom two spots, but EG has been locked in for the semifinals!
G2 and PSG's next two matches will decide which team advances to the Knockout Stage, so the pressure is on.
