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G2 Esports will face PSG Talon for a spot in the playoffs while LOUD will go up against DetonatioN FocusMe in the lower bracket.

It has been an electrifying first day of the Mid-Season Invitational with G2 Esports now just one win away from qualifying for the playoffs. They defeated LOUD in a series that many saw could go either way. G2's comeback win in the first game shattered LOUD's confidence in the second, who went away to the lower bracket quietly.

This win now puts G2 one more series away from qualifying for a spot in the playoff bracket. They will now have to play against PSG Talon, who earlier sent DetonatioN FocusMe to the lower bracket to face LOUD. PSG also went through their very own comeback in the second game, which is something both teams will now have in common heading into their series.

G2 EsportsvsLOUD - Game 1

The first few minutes of the game were tense and passive with both teams feeling each other out. However, the tension was soon gone with LOUD drawing first blood onto G2 after both teams' midlaners had a gank onto their lanes. In the end, it was Thiago "TinOwns" Sartori who got the first blood onto Rasmus "Caps" Winther. LOUD soon gets another kill with a three-man gank onto G2's top lane. This saw Sergen "BrokenBlade" Çelik fall to TinOwns while Caps managed to claim Leonardo "Robo" Souza's life.

And no more than a minute or so later, BrokenBlade is back at it with a quick double kill onto Park "Croc" Jonghoon and Robo. And another minute later, it was Steven "hans sama" Liv who managed to secure a kill on the bottom lane by taking out Denilson "Ceos" Oliveira. However, he would eventually get taken out by Moon "Route" Geom-su. With seven kills spread across both teams in the first 10 minutes, this game was looking to be an entertaining one.

G2 soon claims the first drake of the game along with the rift herald and decided to rotate to a three-man bottom lane gank, which didn't work out at all for them. LOUD was able to bait G2 into a false sense of security, which saw Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle fall to Croc. Soon after, BrokenBlade would fight off both TinOwns and Robo before Caps came in to back him up, making it a two-on-two. This resulted in both top laners falling to their opposing midlaners before both Caps and TinOwns would battle it out on their own.

Both midlaners would outplay one another before Croc comes to TinOwns' rescue to steal the kill. However, immediately after, Martin "Yike" Sundelin managed to shut down TinOwns to keep things even. It was an impressive two-for-two trade-off that had the fans going crazy. With the score and gold graph very much even after 15 minutes, it was time for the first five-versus-five and it didn't disappoint. What started out as a good initiation from G2 turned into a disaster in a blink of an eye. While Ceos was the first to fall and with Yike getting a double kill, G2 still ended up losing all five members with Route also getting a double while TinOwns and Croc were still alive.

This gave LOUD the rift herald and soon after, they went for the second drake of the game to give themselves an added buff. LOUD soon caught out G2 in the midlane and after taking out Mikyx, this opened the doors for the CBLOL number one seed to push G2's midlane turrets in quick succession. The mid-game was very much in the favour of LOUD, who were outwarding G2 to get as much information as they can.

LOUD would soon go for the baron in an attempt to bait G2 into a five-versus-five. G2 would respond in kind and although they didn't manage to steal the baron, they did get two kills off of LOUD for their troubles. LOUD have been on top when it comes to claiming objectives and they did so by getting the third drake, which also allowed them to push deeper into G2's territory. A good, offensive ward also caught out Mikyx, who happened to stray slightly too far out and got killed for his efforts.

With the added man advantage, LOUD saw this as an opportunity to push into G2's bottom lane side of the base. After taking out the inner turret as well as the inhibitor turret, G2 managed to turn the tides of LOUD's push and ended up taking out two from the CBLOL side. With LOUD now having two down would end up retreating, only for Yike and Caps to catch the fleeing members who ended up getting shut down for G2's own teamwipe. G2 would go on to push back LOUD and the bottom lane momentum to take out the turrets, which would see Robbo try and fail to defend it and would end up paying for it with his life.

After that long fight, both G2 and LOUD were evenly squared at that point and G2 would go on to push the advantage. They took out LOUD's outer turret before getting jumped on but G2 would repel LOUD back with both Yike and BrokenBlade being able to turn the tides of the fight by slaying TinOwns and Robo respectively. Soon after, G2 took the baron and would eventually break down LOUD's top lane inner turret to fully expose the enemy base.

LOUD's attempt at defending against G2's push was to attack them from both ends with TinOwns and Robo flanking from the rear. This proved successful at first Mikyx going down early. However, BrokenBlade once again proved to be the difference maker and turned the tides of the fight with a double kill while hans sama managed to also get a kill on Croc before he fell to Route.

As the game wore on, G2 kept building on the momentum after taking out LOUD's top half of the base. They would soon take out the bottom inner turret and right after that, rotate to the midlane to have Mikyx catch four of LOUD in front of their turret to allow hans sama to grab a double kill on Route and Ceos. G2 then went on to destroy the midlane portion of LOUD's base with BrokenBlade adding another double kill to his tally to allow G2 to finalise its comeback against LOUD.

G2 EsportsvsLOUD - Game 2

In the second game, G2 opted to stick with three of the same champions with Nidalee, Nautilus, and Jinx pulling through for the second game in a row. As for LOUD, they decided to stick with the bottom lane duo of Aphelios and Tahm Kench. And while LOUD managed to get the first blood in game one, it was G2 who took it this time as Mikyx caught Croc in the jungle and managed to kill him in a one-versus-one. A few minutes later, a three-man dive from G2 onto LOUD's top lane saw Yike extinguish Robo in a matter of seconds.

While the early game was mostly going G2's way, they couldn't help but stumble along the way with Caps dying early to a two-man gank from LOUD in the middle lane. However, Yike managed to own the top lane by taking out Robo just a minute or so after Caps died while hans sama took out Ceos in the bottom lane almost immediately after. G2's ability to cause chaos around the map was what allowed them to dominate the game from the get-go.

G2 were in total control of game two, forcing LOUD into making plays out of nothing. This allowed G2 to reset and was able to repel back LOUD's attempt to push the bottom lane. Instead, Caps was able to land a perfect hook onto Route, killing him instantly before the rest of G2 collapsed upon LOUD with Ceos getting taken out as well. By 10 minutes into the game, G2 were almost six thousand gold ahead of LOUD while also out-levelling them in the process.

The next few minutes leading into the mid-game would see a scrappy and stretched-out fight take place between both teams who also traded kills in the process. Even with LOUD trying their hardest to claw themselves back into the fight, they could only ever pick off one from G2 while losing one or more.

From the 12th - 16th minute mark, G2 was applying constant pressure onto all of LOUD's lanes, pushing through their defences with ease. After taking out the top lane turret, G2 managed to catch Croc out of position near the entrance of LOUD's base before sending him back to the respawn point. G2 soon rotated bottom where they yet again caught another of LOUD in an awkward spot with Ceos this time the one to fall. This allowed G2 to destroy LOUD's last remaining inner turret.

In what turned out to be G2's final push to end the game, they managed to bait LOUD in the process to force them out of their base. This gave BrokenBlade the chance to take out TinOwns with ease, erasing LOUD's damage output in half and allowing G2 to open up onto them. Hans sama would go on to take out Croc right next to his midlane inhibitor turret. Yike would end the game with a double kill in LOUD's own base to seal a 2-0 sweep for G2.

Be sure to catch the rest of the action from the Mid-Season Invitational on the official Riot Games Twitch channel.

MSI 2023: G2 Esports make light work of LOUD and move on to the next round