In case anyone is interested, day one of MSI group stage was today.

1. SKT (2-0) The defending world and LCK champions look as good as ever with Huni/Peanut making international debuts. No one is really doubting that they are going to win this tournament.

2. FW (0-2) The defending IEM Katowice champions are off to a rough start, losing as many games on day one as they did in their spring split. I'll keep them ahead of G2 given their victory last time.

3. G2 (1-1) Big win vs FW and a loss to SKT is not unexpected. In great shape to exceed expectations and make the finals.

4. Team WE (1-1) The win vs FW establishes they belong, the loss to TSM suggests they aren't world beaters.

5. Team SoloMid (1-1) NA bias? Maybe. They suffer their 3rd loss to the wild card team from Vietnam, but I still have faith that they're a little better. Have not looked crisp.

6. GIGABYTE Marines (1-1) Vietnam has showed up big this tournament and gone 3-3 vs the NA LCS champions. Stark's Gragas has been fun to watch. Not buying them out of groups.

I'm not sure you could make a 5-man roster out of the rest of the players in the world that would be better than SKT or KT this year.

I feel like whenever they play NA teams, SKT just has a little extra swag to their game and stomp them extra hard. Probably for that one game at S4 Worlds that TSM took off of Samsung White when White basically picked a straight troll comp.

probably decent odds that both EU and NA miss top 4. Gigabyte Marines look like a decent enough team. All have a 1-3 record but Marines have looked better overall

g2 are now 2-2 fwiw^. if only gigabyte could play beyond 15 minutes.

always amusing when a pro team gets to a nexus and they just have to not **** up but coz they always ff@10 scrims, they have no idea what to do

Zven just position yourself on the other side of the nexus to rumble, and g2 win, just keep hitting the nexus instead of culling rumble, you win the game, dash away from the rumble and around the nexus, you win the game, perkz position yourself towards the fountain so that the running back from dragon tsm have to run further, win the game, use syndra to keep rumble away from lucian, you win the game, Gragas tp to the nexus instead of running there to force tsm to turn around and stop the tp and delay them, win the game, trick smite red buff before going for the back door for more health, win the game. Both Perkz and Zven put auto attacks into things that weren't the nexus aswell.

or **** everything up and lose lul

Semifinals are set.

1. SKT (8-2) vs 4. FW (5-6) - FW picked up a win vs SKT, but haven't looked great at MSI. Should be a fairly easy win for SKT.

2. WE (7-3) vs 3. G2 (4-6) - WE lucked out by facing possibly the weakest team in the tournament. Will G2 put the pieces together this week? Probably not.

I think in the SKT vs WE finals, Huni/Peanut will outmatch 957/Condi.

TSM is quite a mess with only Hauntzer looking like someone capable of winning advantages at any point. Sven continued to look awful and Bjergsen was basically a spectator. The return of Doublelift will definitely help, but if they could bring on LirA or Reignover they could maybe make it out of groups.

I think they could use better coaching over replacing Sven. Not only were Parth's drafts abysmal, the team showed no real evidence that they even tried to learn from their mistakes. After giving up that sneak baron to FW in their first game, TSM proceed to do the exact same thing against G2 like 2 hours later. Not to mention their affinity for running around doing absolutely nothing after 15 minutes every single game.

A lot of their individual deficiencies also feel fixable with a strong coaching staff. Someone to tell Sven to stop invading with no lane pressure or Hauntzer to stop being so greedy. And with Doublelift coming back, hopefully that can loosen Bjerg up a bit. It really felt this whole split like he was back in the "I must 1v9 every game" mindset, and his play really suffered as a result. He did fine, but "fine" is way less than you know he's capable of doing. Tbh, Regi might be better off hiring a CEO to run the day-to-day business and install himself as coach. The team usually gets their **** together when he comes down to help prepare them.

#FreeSM

Not sure coaching is the biggest problem. Sure he sucks but the shotcalling is not his.

Nobody can shotcall. And im sure nobody can shotcall because Bjergsen is a gigantic turd

has faker ever given up 2 solo kills + essentially solo turret?

that was painful to watch

I remember him getting solo killed a couple of times by Fnatic Febivens Leblanc. It doesnt happen very often but sometimes not even Faker can avoid the snowball. I also think that if there was something on the line for SKT that doesnt happen.

FMP

Imho Hauntzer had a sub par performance compared to the split. I chalk it up to just trying too hard. Bjergsen and Biofrost most consistent performers on their team (Bio 1 and Bjerg 2 over all players in KP during group stage).

Marines were new to international competition, but man were they fun to watch. Love teams that mess with the meta and succeed. Hopefully they'll get better and come back at Worlds.

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I found bjergsen very lacklustre in most games, just being there like some rando mid laner, spectator indeed. Most games offered 0 indication he's the best player on his team.

Granted, that's also true for Faker, but that's kind of by design in SKT lately (the last years even, perhaps) - they win with faker getting by with very few resources

I agree that even though Bjergsen was still one of the most effective players on TSM at MSI, he still did not "carry" as you would expect from him or Hauntzer. I think what got the most exposed was that he's not a top tier shot caller and that's why they were better with Doublelift on the roster.

Maybe Hauntzer could eventually fill that shot calling gap, but obviously they are not there yet. They lost a lot of games after having leads where teams like SKT are able to close the game and they couldn't.

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Bjerg has always been like that and for him to excel he'll need a jungler he listens to and is willing to miss a few CS for. Sven is obviously not that guy after a year and a half together. Either because Sven isn't communicating what the team needs or Bjerg is unwilling to listen to him.

Best Bjerg-era TSM was 2014 with Amazing/Dyrus/WildTurtle/Lustboy. Not that any of those guys were godly individual players but Amazing/Lustboy obviously got a hell of a lot more done on the map than Sven/Biofrost.

wow quintessential skt game, make one mistake and your nexus is dead

They have perfected what most other regions still struggle with in certain scenarios: how to close out games. I think you could say most Korean teams have this down pat. SKT though; what a dynasty.

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SKT truly indestructible.

G2's doing surprisingly well

They generally have very good track record for bo5's.

easy win for G2 vs SKT today

+1

Faker inting

gg