PSG prove to the world once again that they are G2’s Kryptonite, while EG shocks the world in a surprise, upset win over T1.

PSG vs G2: Yesterday Was No Fluke

All things considered, it’s pretty hilarious how PSG Talon have now emerged as the surprise kryptonite to the formerly unstoppable G2. G2’s drafts was much better this time around, with a solid teamfighting comp but their execution was largely stifled by flanks from Bay’s Syndra and Hanabi’s Kennen respectively. Bay, who has been largely forgettable for PSG Talon this tournament, had quite a good performance on the Syndra, complete with a nasty Teleport flank into multi-man Scatter the Weak. Take the name plates off and you would’ve been forgiven if you thought that was Rookie on Syndra!

Hanabi and Unified combined to outplay G2 in big teamfights after that flank play from Bay. The Kennen consistently caught multiple G2 players in his ultimate, allowing for Unified to safely tear through the G2 members one by one. G2 were looking like the best teamfighting team in the early stages of MSI 2022, but they have been getting consistently outplayed over their last three games, where the previously undefeated team is now 0-3 over that stretch. I remain convinced that G2’s current Kalista priority has something to do with it; her mobility isn’t nearly as reliable as Kai’Sa or Ezreal and lack of mobility within these hectic fights can easily amount to a massive loss of DPS overtime…

T1 vs EG

Well, well, well… How the turned have tables…

While this EG upset win did take quite a few miracle barrel combos out of Impact’s Gangplank, I was impressed nonetheless at the North American’s teams doggedness and their ability to go toe-to-toe with the Korean champs in teamfights. Zeus continued his monstrous lane dominance, solokilling Impact with his Gwen early on in the laning phase. However, it was the original T1 top laner that had the last laugh when he landed a crucial barrel combo on a clumped T1 near Baron, chunking out health bars and allowing Danny to take over on his signature Jinx.

T1 narrowly win a dragon fight five minutes later with an absolutely gorgeous kick from Oner, taking off Danny’s head from the very start of the fight and allowing Zeus and Gumayusi to out-DPS an EG lineup without their hypercarry. But T1 lose the ensuing Baron flip, their second of this game and one of shockingly many this tournament, allowing Danny’s Jinx to pop off again and giving EG the necessary avenues to finish off the game.

T1’s Baron Bait Tactic

This iteration of T1 is quite different from the legendary eras of days gone by. Armed with four very young players spinning on all cylinders, they are much more bloodthirsty and skirmish-heavy, trusting in their mechanical talent to outskill any opponent that stands in their way. However, their macro leaves much to be desired, and they have had a propensity to start Barons with all 10 players alive all throughout the LCK playoffs and MSI. The only reason Evil Geniuses were able to come back from a gold deficit was because they won both of these Baron flips, and eventually took the game from there.

My guess as to this peculiar habit from T1 is that they are using the Baron start as an engage mechanism; they draft a poke and/or pick style comp and attack the Baron, prompting the enemy team to walk into their trap, where T1 is then able to chunk the enemy team and win the Baron fight, snowballing their way to a victory. EG’s teamfighting and decisive engages were very critical in foiling T1’s gameplan, with Jojopyun’s proactive playstyle as well as Inspired’s clutch factor being the main reason why North America were able to get one up on the legendary Korean org.