PSG Talon won their third regional championship owing to the two South Koreans, who entered the organization prior to the 2022 PCS Spring Split. They entered the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational with high hopes, having advanced to the semifinals last year, but were eliminated in the Rumble Stage with an overall score of 3-7, despite defeating G2 Esports twice.

In an interview after the 2022 MSI, PSG Talon top laner Su “Hanabi” Chia-Hsiang shared some insights on the team’s challenges. Juhan and Bay were experiencing difficulties communicating and connecting with their Taiwanese and Hong Kong counterparts, and it was clear that something needed to be done about it.

It is currently unclear where Juhan and Bay might head next. Bay had previously expressed his wish to return to an LCK team.

“If I become and perform better, I want to go to the LCK. But I believe the PCS is a region where I’m developing myself. If I get to improve a lot, evolve, and play better, I might be getting some offers from other teams and I’ll take that into consideration,” he said.

Apart from the MSI expectations, Juhan and Bay had a lot of ground to cover. They took the place of jungler Kim “River” Dong-woo and mid-laner Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang, who had helped the team reach their peak years.

The three-time PCS winners are due for yet another change of their roster, even though they achieved success locally with a 16-2 record this season during the spring. Their failure to produce the same standard of performance on the global stage has the coaching staff hunting for answers. The change was imminent as PSG’s new mid-jungle core were unable to meet the high standards set by their successors.

Bay and Juhan had KDAs of 2.4 and 2.0, respectively, at MSI 2022. In addition to having the lowest damage figures for their role at the event, they also had the worst early-game statistics. Together, they were unable to compete with the majority of all the other duos in the competition, and PSG won only three matches during the Rumble Stage.

Prior to the 2022 PCS Summer Split, the organization will need to sign two new players to fill their open spots. It appears that the roster is still missing their former star duo of Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang and Kim “River” Dong-woo, who are now playing for the LCS in North America. The former recently signed with TSM, while Kim “River” Dong-woo has become the lynchpin for Team Dignitas’ plans for the upcoming season.

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RNG recorded the most points among the lot, securing eight wins and only two losses. T1 were next in line with 21 points from seven wins, while EG and G2 were tied for 15 points. With Evil Geniuses losing all their head-to-head contests in MSI, G2 were placed third and EG in fourth. ??

Although PSG Talon won their game against G2 Esports on the final day of the Rumble Stage, they lost to Saigon Buffalo in their second and final game. Despite winning two of their last four games, Saigon Buffalo were eliminated after losing six straight games.??

With the knockouts being the final stage of the tournament, all four teams will battle to become the 2022 MSI champions. The reigning champs, RNG, have an opportunity to defend their crown.

In 2021, RNG defeated the then-defending champions, DWG KIA, 3-2 in the best-of-five finals series in Reykjavik, Iceland. That was their second MSI title, and a third title would make the Chinese esports franchise the most successful team in MSI history.

The MSI 2022 Knockout Stage will commence on Friday, May 27, and run through to Saturday, May 28. On Sunday, a new champion will be crowned.

Which teams and players topped the Rumble Stage KDA rankings?

RNG led the pack in KDA with 175 kills across all 10 games played in the Rumble Stage. T1 and EG both tied at 148 kills each with Choi “Zeus” Woo-je leading T1 on 47 kills and Joseph “Jojopyun” Joon Pyun recording the most kills (39) on EG’s roster.

The KDA player rankings were dominated by RNG players, namely Chen “GALA” Wei, Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao, Yan “Wei” Yang-Wei, and Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming. According to Oracle’s Elixir, the League of Legends stats company, they recorded 7.9, 6.8, 6.2, and 4.7 KDA respectively.

??T1 were duly represented, as three of their players made the list from fifth to seventh place: jungler Moon “Oner” Hyeon-joon with 4.6 KDA, mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (4.3), and marksman Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyoeng (4.2) respectively.

The rest of the top 10 KDA rankings were occupied by players from Evil Geniuses. The Polish jungler Kacper “Inspired” S?oma finished with a team-high 4.0 rating, while bot laner Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki and mid laner Joseph “jojopyun” Pyun both had 3.7 KDA.??

G2, who didn’t lose a game against Evil Geniuses, had all their players ranked below EG. Sergen “Broken Blade” ?elik and Rapha?l “Targamas” Crabbé led the team with 3.3 KDA, ranking 13th and 14th respectively. Victor “Flakked” Lirola Tortosa ranked bottom among all players from the major regions with 2.6.

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??The LEC champion has slid down to fourth place on the MSI Rumble Stage standings, behind Royal Never Give Up, T1, and Evil Geniuses. G2’s four straight defeats have come at the hands of PSG Talon, Royal Never Give Up, and T1.??

Today’s losses came after a first outing match-up against PSG Talon, who have claimed two victories over the German franchise. The second defeat of the day was inflicted by T1, leaving G2 with a 4-4 record. ?

In its first outing of the day against PSG Talon, G2 went behind 15 minutes into the game, having sustained four early kills and given up three dragons. Those early struggles gave PSG leverage to dominate and take the lead by over 5,000 gold. G2 managed to secure its first kill in the 25th minute.

??PSG Talon secured the win with 18 kills, as compared to G2’s eight kills made by Broken Blade (5), caPs (2), and Flakked (1). Unified was the standout player for PSG, his Tristan stealing the day with a scoreline of 7/0/7. He also led the damage count with an average of 541 per minute.??

READ: RNG knocks G2 out of top spot in MSI 2022 Rumble Stage

Both teams came into this game tied for second place with a 4-3 record, and the winner was guaranteed to finish second in the standings. Having already defeated T1 in the Rumble Stage, G2 hoped to do a double over the Korean team. With its top-four position in jeopardy, G2 needed a win over T1.??

However, T1 has over time developed resistance against consecutive individual game defeats. The team is yet to lose a consecutive individual game since the 2021 LoL World Championship. This season, T1 has won all 11 games immediately following losses. ??The squad had suffered a defeat in its earlier fixture against Evil Geniuses and needed to respond.

??The two-time MSI champion was taking no prisoners, posting 18 kills. Choi “Zeus” Woo-je was the focal point for the team with a scoreline of 7/4/6, giving his team the advantage. Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong also had a good outing with a 5/1/7 scoreline.

Having gone 4-0 over the first two days of the stage, ??G2 ended Day 4 with a 4-4 record. With two games left in the Rumble Stage, the team’s advancement to the MSI final bracket is threatened. On Tuesday, the German franchise will face Saigon Buffalo and third-placed Evil Geniuses – its chances of making it out of the rumble.

With Evil Geniuses’ rekindled firepower, overtaking G2 is almost guaranteed – even though the European side has had the better of the matchup recently. ??It is imperative to note that PSG Talon is a game away from tying with G2 Esports. If Talon can win both of its final outings against Evil Geniuses and RNG, it could usurp G2.

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G2 sits at the top of the Rumble Stage standings with a perfect 4-0 record, at the time of writing, with their spot in the Knockout Stage just about secured with only four games to play on the last two days. The European champions have extended their win streak to 24 games over the end of their EU Spring split and their first 12 games at MSI, which sits as the second longest win streak in professional League of Legends history.

T1 were the heavy pre-tournament favourites at $1.57 but since the Rumble Stage has started the Korean champions look anything but the odds-on favourite that they were before MSI had begun. They currently sit in third place in the Rumble Stage with a 3-2 record, at the time of writing, after losing to G2 and RNG who sit in the two places above them in the standings. They will still make the Knockout Stage but they won’t want to lose to G2 and RNG twice before potentially facing one of them in the Knockout Stage first round.

The difference in the odds that we are being offered are too far apart in our opinion and we think that this will be a close contest. Therefore we will be taking G2 at the kill handicap of +5.5, currently $1.90 with GG Bet.

Saigon Buffalo are currently on the bottom of the standings for the Rumble Stage with a no wins from four games, at the time of writing. The VCS champions looked quite good in their Group Stage matches but since going through to the Rumble Stage they have struggled against the better opposition they have had to face every game.

PSG Talon are sitting in fifth place, at the time of writing, in the Rumble Stage standings with a 1-4 record with a chance to still make the Knockout Stage. PSG Talon will need to win the games they play against Saigon Buffalo and Evil Geniuses, who sits just above them, to keep their Knockout Stage chances alive.

Even though PSG Talon are short favourites here, we think that they will be winning this match over the bottom placed Saigon Buffalo, so we will be taking the $1.66 on offer with GG Bet.

Royal Never Give Up are sitting in second place in the Rumble Stage standings with a 3-1 record, at the time of writing, with their only loss coming from G2. The reigning MSI and Chinese champions have been very impressive in this year’s edition of MSI, going undefeated at 6-0 throughout the Group Stage adding to their 3-1 record in the Rumble Stage. RNG will be looking to keep up the winning with another comprehensive win over Evil Geniuses.

Evil Geniuses currently sit in fourth place in the Rumble Stage standings, at the time of writing, which is the last qualifying spot for the Knockout Stage. With a 2-3 record, the North American champions will have to keep winning against the two teams below them, PSG Talon and Saigon Buffalo to hold onto that fourth spot.

RNG will be very, very short in this match and we cannot suggest backing them at $1.07, but we will suggest taking the favourites at the kill handicap of -12.5 at $1.83 with GG Bet.

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?The second seed out of Group B, PSG Talon, take on the second seed from Group A, Saigon Buffalo in what will be both teams first match of the Rumble Stage at MSI.

PSG Talon were picked my many good judges as the fourth best team at MSI being the best of the second seed teams to progress to the Rumble Stage. Although PSG Talon are the best ranked second seed team to make the Rumble Stage they did only go 3-3 in the Group Stage, losing two matches to Royal Never Give Up, which was expected, but they also slipped up against RED Canids in the first match of Group B. The PCS Spring champions will be on a mission to continue their dominance of the second tier teams at MSI and Saigon Buffalo will have their hands full in this game.

Saigon Buffalo punched their ticket into the Rumble Stage by being the clear second best team in Group A behind tournament favourites T1, going 4-2 through their Group Stage matches. They took care of DetonatioN FocusMe and Team Aze in all four of their matches and lost their two matches against T1. The VCS Spring champions finished sixth in 2019 at MSI and this year Saigon Buffalo will be looking to equal or better that at this year’s MSI.

We like the odds we are getting at GG Bet for PSG Talon to take out this match, so we will be siding with the PCS champions to get the win over the VCS champions here.

?The winners of Group C, G2 Esports, take on the winners of Group B, Royal Never Give Up, in what sets up to be one of the best matches of the Rumble Stage.

G2 Esports, Evil Geniuses and ORDER played eight games in their Group Stage matches due to the LCL not sending a representative after the LCL Spring split was cancelled. G2 Esports finished undefeated with an 8-0 record to win Group C. The pre-tournament third favourite and European champions, G2, have been dominate so far in all of their eight matches, but they are yet to play any team with the talent that this Royal Never Give Up roster possesses.

Royal Never Give Up were also dominant in their six Group Stage matches topping the group after beating PSG Talon, RED Canids and Istanbul Wildcats twice on their way to a 6-0 record. The Chinese and reigning MSI champions are looking just as ominous coming out of the Group Stage as they did coming into MSI. RNG will face their toughest match up to date as they come up against the 2019 MSI champions, G2 Esports.

This will be a great match and even though there is a big margin between G2 and RNG in the betting we don’t believe the margin should be that big. Therefore we will be taking RNG at the -7.5 kill handicap.

?The second seed from Group A, Saigon Buffalo, take on the second seed from Group C, Evil Geniuses, in what could be a vital match between two teams looking to take fourth place at the end of the Rumble Stage.

As we said in our earlier preview of Saigon Buffalo’s first game against PSG Talon, the VCS Spring champions will be on a mission to equal or better their sixth place finish at the 2019 MSI. Saigon Buffalo were the best performing second seed team through the Group Stage after they only lost two matches to the pre-tournament favourites, T1. Evil Geniuses represent a very good opportunity for Saigon Buffalo to secure a much needed win to further help their chances of making the Knockout Stage.

Evil Geniuses finished with a 4-4 record after they lost all four of their games against G2 Esports and they won all four of their games against ORDER. The NA Spring champions are competing in their first ever MSI and considering that only two NA teams have ever made the Knockout Stage in the six MSI tournaments, Evil Geniuses are definitely up against it here in the Rumble Stage. However, as for Saigon Buffalo, this game does represent as an opportunity for Evil Geniuses to secure a much needed win.

Saigon Buffalo were by far the best second seed coming into the Rumble Stage, so we are siding with the $2.00 underdogs in this series.

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?DetonatioN FocusMe and Team Aze are two League of Legends esports teams who should have no chance of winning the MSI trophy, and that’s a fair assessment. Still, out of the two, DFM look far more dangerous and capable of causing a few upsets.

Admittedly, DetonatioN FocusMe hail from a weak region, but they were the most dominant team in the Japanese league. Unfortunately, DFM lost Lee “Aria” Ga-eul ahead of the 2022 season, making them weaker on paper, but they’re still good enough to take games off bottom teams such as Team Aze.

DetonatioN FocusMe should win, but they’re not a very appealing bet at $1.40, nor would we consider betting on them with a -9.5 kill handicap. Instead, we’re on under 27.5 total kills, which should be achievable as long as DFM play their game and don’t risk too much en route to what should be an easy victory.

?As the latest LoL betting odds suggest, G2 Esports should defeat ORDER with ease and even though that might happen, we would argue that ORDER’s chances of causing an upset are greater than 12.5%. That’s not necessarily because ORDER are stronger than G2 Esports, but rather because G2 are not the most consistent team.

G2’s biggest weakness should be their bottom lane, which features two rookies with no experience playing on an international stage. Moreover, G2 might underestimate ORDER, and we could see a similar scenario play out as in last year’s MSI when no one thought much of Pentanet.GG, but they ended up reaching the Rumble stage.

Betting on ORDER to win is a bit too optimistic, even though these early-round games offer the best chance of an upset. Instead, we’re on the Australian squad with a +11.5 kill handicap, which is too high for the game’s current state, where high-kill games are not as frequent.

G2 Esports enter this match as $1.61 favourites, which might seem fair, but the odds on offer with most esports betting sites seem to be based mostly on the idea of Europe being a stronger region than North America. You can’t argue with that, knowing that LEC teams have achieved much more on the international stage over the years, but that doesn’t mean much for this bout.

If we compare the individual talent on G2 and EG, there isn’t much to set these two squads apart, especially if all 10 players play as well as we know they can. But we know that Evil Geniuses’ players have been dominating the Korean solo queue ladder, so at least it’s fair to assume that the NA champions are ready for the tournament.

Until we see the teams in action, we will continue to believe that this is a 50/50 affair that can easily end both ways. So we have to side with Evil Geniuses at plus money.

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This year’s MSI will feature three previous winners: 2018 and 2021 champions Royal Never Give Up; 2019 champions G2 Esports; and 2016 and 2017 champions T1. These three teams make up five of the six previous champions that have ever won MSI since its inaugural event in 2015. Therefore it is easy to see why the LoL bookmakers have these three teams at the top of betting. T1 will be the $1.57 favourite, followed by Royal Never Give Up as the $2.75 second favourite and G2 Esports as the $9.00 third favourite.

BEST BET – Royal Never Give Up

The LPL champions from China, Royal Never Give Up, are the best bet for us at www.zc-erp.com. Royal Never Give Up finished their split as the second seed behind Victory Five, but RNG were by far the best team throughout the playoffs stage. The 2018 and 2021 MSI champions will be participating in this year’s event as the LPL representative for the fourth time in seven years and they will be hoping to be crowned champions for the third time.

The RNG roster that won the 2021 MSI will all return to this year’s edition minus Yuan “Cryin” Cheng-Wei who has since transferred teams and they have added Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin to the top-lane with Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao moving to the mid-lane. RNG also have the reigning MSI MVP Chen “GALA” Wei who returns to the MSI in much different form than he arrived in last year after he won the LPL Spring 2021 MVP. RNG will play the MSI from China as the only team who will play remotely, due to the COVID-19 situation in China. If RNG can continue their great form after their 2022 LPL Spring win, they will be one of the hardest teams to beat in Busan.

BEST ROUGHIE – G2 Esports

The LEC champions G2 Esports had one of the more amazing runs through their split. G2 Esports finished their split as the fourth seed and then lost their first playoff series in the upper bracket. However, after that loss in the upper bracket G2 Esports did not lose a single series on their way to the LEC Spring Split grand-final. They took the grand final in dominant fashion 3-0 over Rogue, completing their run of four wins in a row where they did not lose a single map. The boys from the LEC will arrive at the MSI with a lot of confidence and will be looking to take out the title for the second time in four years.

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Teams from each of the individual Riot leagues will be duly represented, with spectators allowed to experience the event live.

LPL representatives Royal Never Give Up will participate remotely due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions in China.

The LCK’s unbeaten kings, T1, kick off the competition on the opening day, while the world welcomes the VCS back to international play with Saigon Buffalo as its representative.

The Vietnamese reps boast one of the youngest teams in the tournament, with only one player over 19 years old in the starting lineup. Nonetheless, they are kicking off their campaign with perhaps the strongest team in the competition.

Spectators will also be able to see another classic EU versus NA battle when Evil Geniuses, the newest LCS champions, square off against the LEC’s new-look G2 Esports. Both teams have the ideal mix of veteran leadership and feisty newbie skill, which could make for an exciting matchup.

The event will commence on May 10, 2022, in Busan, South Korea, as teams compete for the US$250,000 prize pool. The top two teams from each of the three groups will advance to the Rumble Stage.

In 2021, Royal Never Give Up were the champions of the Mid-Season Invitational in Reykjavik, Iceland, besting DAMWON Gaming 3-2 in the best-of-five final series. They went unbeaten in the group stage and lost only three games in seven outings during the Rumble stage.

MSI 2022 Week 1 schedule

Day 1 (Tuesday, May 10)

• Saigon Buffalo vs T1
• DetonatioN FocusMe vs Team Aze
• ORDER vs G2 Esports
• Evil Geniuses vs G2 Esports
• Istanbul WildCats vs Royal Never Give Up
• RED Canids vs PSG Talon

Day 2 (Wednesday, May 11)

• Evil Geniuses vs G2 Esports
• ORDER vs G2 Esports
• DetonatioN FocusMe vs Saigon Buffalo
• Team Aze vs T1
• RED Canids vs Istanbul WildCats
• PSG Talon vs Royal Never Give Up

Day 3 (Thursday, May 12)

• ORDER vs Evil Geniuses
• ORDER vs G2 Esports
• Istanbul WildCats vs PSG Talon
• RED Canids vs Royal Never Give Up
• Team Aze vs Saigon Buffalo
• DetonatioN FocusMe vs T1

Day 4 (Friday, May 13)

• RED Canids vs PSG Talon
• Istanbul WildCats vs Royal Never Give Up
• RED Canids vs Royal Never Give Up
• RED Canids vs Istanbul WildCats
• PSG Talon vs Royal Never Give Up

Day 5 (Saturday, May 14)

• Evil Geniuses vs G2 Esports
• ORDER vs Evil Geniuses
• ORDER vs G2 Esports
• Evil Geniuses vs G2 Esports
• ORDER vs Evil Geniuses
• ORDER vs G2 Esports

Day 6 (Sunday, May 15)

• Team Aze vs Saigon Buffalo
• DetonatioN FocusMe vs T1
• DetonatioN FocusMe vs Saigon Buffalo
• Team Aze vs T1
• DetonatioN FocusMe vs Team Aze
• Saigon Buffalo vs T1

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