Image credit: LoL Esports
It was close but ultimately no cigar for G2 Esports as T1 move on to the semifinals of the Mid-Season Invitational.
T1 have just booked a Mid-Season Invitational upper bracket semifinal slot against Bilibili Gaming after the defending world champions defeated G2 Esports. The best-of-five between T1 and G2 went to Silver Scrapes for the second day in a row after BLG and PSG Talon went to all five games yesterday.
G2 is still not out of the tournament yet though; they will now drop to the lower bracket where they will go up against PSG. It was an exhilarating series that saw G2 come extremely close to beating T1 in a best-of-five for the first time ever. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case as T1 did what many expected them to do, and it was to still come out on top at the end.
The first match of the series even went T1's way, which prompted many to predict that it could be another easy sweep for the nine-time LCK champions. But despite winning game one rather convincingly, G2 was still able to catch T1 off-guard on numerous occasions. Even with Sang-hyoek “Faker” Lee on his signature Azir (which he ended the game with a KDA of 8/4/7), he still got solo-killed by Rasmus “Caps” Winther a few times.
But T1's dominance could not be stopped in the first game as this allowed the likes of Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong to go wild with Varus as he was the only player on T1 to go deathless alongside five kills and 10 assists. T1's team fighting in the first match was what got them through as Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, Moon “Oner” Hyeon-joon, and Ryu “Keria” Min-seok recorded double-digit assists.
However, G2 came out swinging in game two that turned out to be one of its best games of the series. For starters, Martin “Yike” Sundelin swapping Kalista for Rek'Sai proved to be the catalyst as he went on to score nine kills and eight assists with zero deaths against T1. And he's not the only player to go deathless in the second game as even Sergen “BrokenBlade” Çelik was unstoppable with Zac as he got three kills and nine assists to draw G2 level with T1.
The 13-time LEC champions then went one further in game three as they managed to wrestle T1 into submission. Caps' Orianna was one of the key figures of the series as he would go on to get five kills and 13 assists along with a sole death whilst Faker's Aurelion Sol couldn't get on the kill feed as he struggled with six deaths and five assists. But it was Steven “Hans sama” Liv on Varus that had a great outing in game three as he secured nine kills and 11 assists to go with four deaths.
And just when you thought G2 had the series in the bag, T1's fourth game draft saw the return of Xin Zhao, Azir, and Varus into its composition. From the early game, it already looked to be in T1's favour as they held G2 to just four kills throughout the match. Oner would remain to be the only one on the team without any deaths as his Xin Zhao was able to snag three kills and eight assists for his troubles. Gumayusi also showed why his Varus is one of the best after he got seven kills and assists alongside just one death.
As the series went into Silver Scrapes, it featured some of the player's most prominent champions. BrokenBlade brought back Zac, which was instrumental in G2 winning the second match. Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle also introduced Poppy once again, another key champion that gave G2 the win in game three. But the most interesting choice for G2 in the fifth game was the Bel'Veth pick for Yike that ultimately, didn't really work out.
But that isn't to say that G2 didn't play well; rather, it was T1 who were playing above their normal standards. It also helped that Faker was on another signature champion like Ahri where he made plenty of plays happen. This resulted in him getting six key kills alongside eight assists and only one death. Even Zeus' usage of K'Sante as the frontline tank was immense as he was able to distract and nullify most of G2's damage.
In the end, G2 would falter in the fifth and final game in a series where it could have gone either way. While T1 are certainly finding their groove as the tournament goes on, they are not unstoppable as G2 clearly showed.
