We are finally in the most exciting portion of the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) tournament, as only the top teams remain. Each team has a different set of pressure following them into these best-of-five series and this article will cover major themes, high-performing players, and who I think will hoist the trophy in the end. This will not be the complete coverage of this weekend but instead hopefully something to get you excited for the highest levels of play this year! Let’s dive into our top LoL DFS picks of the weekend!

 

 

Royal Never Give Up (1st seed, Tournament Record: 14-2)

Overview: You have to feel like RNG has the best path to winning the Mid-Season Invitational. They chose the lowest performing team left in Evil Geniuses and they will have an extra day to prepare over the winner of the second Semifinal matchup. RNG has only lost matches to teams who are in the knockout stage and only one of those matches being a blowout loss. I have appreciated their ability to quickly adapt to the tournament meta and found ways to be aggressive in their play patterns. We find the core of their play is through their ability to set the pace with Wei and Xiaohu. This may be the best mid/jungle in the tournament and they will need to perform at a very high level to win it all. The biggest weakness I see with this squad is their bottom lane falling short in terms of late game carry potential. We have seen in both of their losses come with poor performances out of Gala and Ming. It will be key for Royal Never Give Up to either focus on supporting the bottom lane or investing all resources into the top half of the map.

Players to watch: Xiaohu, Wei, Gala

T1 Esports (2nd seed, Tournament Record: 13-3)

Overview: T1 Esports has been a very difficult team to read throughout the tournament. Their 18-0 record domestically was impressive but we have seen how questionable their feat may have actually been. They as a team are very mechanically skilled but they have shown multiple times to struggle with macro decisions. Their ADC, Gumayusi, has had huge performances when he can outskill the opposing bottom laners but if teams put pressure on him, he has a tendency to crack. The bright spot for this team has to be their top laner, Zeus. Zeus has played a variety of champions, carrying much of the burden for the responsibility of carrying T1’s early game. If Zeus can put out enough pressure in the laning phase, Faker and Oner can help secure the bottom lane getting into the late game safely. There also is a missing element in the carry factor out of Faker. He has had a respectable tournament but has not been at the level of “Demon King”, which they will need to come out on top.   

Players to watch: Zeus, Keria, Oner

G2 Esports (3rd seed, Tournament Record: 13-5)

Overview: This is arguably the hardest path to the championship out of the four. They will have to play on back-to-back days and most likely need to beat the top two teams in the world to be victorious. Things looked bleak for the Europeans as they had been on a 5 game losing streak going into their final match of Monday. They picked up the convincing win over EG (they are 6-0 against the LCS at this tournament) but they have a shaky record against everyone else. This team needs to focus on solid drafts and not putting themselves into positions where one bad decision can seal their loss in late game situations. They need to have more consistent play out of both BrokenBlade and Jankos. G2 has relied on them performing at a high level to alleviate some of the pressure to perform on their inexperienced bottom lane. In the last week, teams have refused to allow BrokenBlade to play aggressively. They punish his over aggression and they invest heavily into ganking patterns by Jankos to limit his impact on the early game. Both of these players need to get creative in their approach to be able to punch their ticket to the championship. 

Players to watch: Caps, Targamas

Evil Geniuses: (4th seed, Tournament Record: 9-9)

Overview: The North American representatives have a feeling of “playing with house money” at this point. They have met/exceeded expectations of the League of Legends community by following through on being a major region team making it to the final stages of an international tournament. In terms of mechanical skill, the players of EG can keep up for the most part. You see the largest gap in their ability to read the map as a team. In their matches against RNG in the Rumble Stage, EG had kept up and even made plays at times. The problem was with their inability to understand what their win conditions were versus what RNG was trying to accomplish. I think we will see flashy plays out of EG players like Danny, Impact, and Vulcan but RNG’s understanding of the larger game will be too much for them. This experience should be extremely valuable for this young team and they will be a force to reckon with when they get back home. 

Players to watch: Impact, Danny, Inspired


Cann’s Predictions

Semifinals

Royal Never Give Up (3 - 1) Evil Geniuses

T1 Esports (2 - 3) G2 Esports

Finals 

Royal Never Give Up (3 - 0) G2 Esports