Image credit: LoL Esports
G2 Esports are going strong at the Mid-Season Invitational after they eliminated Top Esports.
G2 Esports make it two 3–0 victories in a row in its lower bracket run at the Mid-Season Invitational after Top Esports became the latest casualty. With that win, G2 have confirmed a top-four finish for themselves at MSI as well as a slot in the lower bracket semifinal where they will face the winner of the other quarter-final series, T1 or Team Liquid.
As for TES, they have become the first LPL team to be eliminated on home soil as the nation's hopes now lie at the hands of Bilibili Gaming. Despite being the LPL second seed at MSI, TES was one of just two teams that have had the longest playing time in the tournament thus far, having qualified from the Play-In Stage alongside T1.
TES aren't any pushovers either as its starting line-up features plenty of household names in the LPL. But it didn't fall for them today as G2 was able to nullify TES in all three matches and held them off on numerous occasions. One of the main takeaways from the series was Rasmus “Caps” Winther on Tristana in all three games where he was a constant menace in the mid-lane.
And it wasn't just Caps that had a solid three games; that could be said for the whole of G2 based on their performance over TES. Sergen “BrokenBlade” Çelik was another standout performer for G2 as he showed great versatility with Camille, Twisted Fate, and K'Sante against arguably one of the best toplaners, Bai “369” Jia-Hao.
You also can't leave out Steven “Hans sama” Liv, who has been steadily growing into his own at G2. His Kog'Maw in the second match will definitely be one to remember for the MSI stage as he ran rampant from start to finish. Of the 22 kills Hans Sama got in three games, he secured 12 in just the second match alone with Kog'Maw. But of course, he wouldn't have gone that far without the support of Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle.
G2's bottom lane duo have been in great shape since the start of the Bracket Stage and it can only get better from here. Mikyx had the highest assist count from all three matches, just two more than Martin “Yike” Sundelin. However, despite getting also the same number of kills as Mikyx across the three games, Yike gave away just one death in the entire series.
Tomorrow's best-of-five between T1 and Team Liquid will see G2 get the chance to exact revenge on the team that banished them to the lower bracket in the first place. However, if Liquid were to win instead, this will be only the second time they will meet G2 in a best-of-five with the first dating back to MSI 2019.
