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2017 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational: Group Stage

The World Championships have reached the business end.
Roar Guru
11th May, 2017
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Well, the end of the 2017 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational play-in stage was more or less as expected; the Flash Wolves thoroughly thrashed SuperMassive eSports in the first bracket stage, and while both Gigabyte Marines and SuperMassive had strong and weak moments, Gigabyte Marines won out 3-1 to progress to the MSI Group Stage.

In doing so, they also won their region a second spot at the 2017 World Championships, with the regional No.1 skipping the play-ins.

We’re now knee-deep in the group stage round-robin. The top four teams coming out of this stage will become the four pool one regions in the World Championship group draw later in the year, which has the potential to make it considerably easier for them to progress through that tournament.

That’s not for months yet, but after G2 eSports’ embarrasing show at MSI 2016, it’s bound to be in the back of all teams’ minds.

Day one of group play held some real surprises; the obvious one being Gigabyte Marines’ 36-minute win over Team SoloMid, but Flash Wolves started the event 0-2 in games against World Elite and G2 eSports. On the other hand, it’s completely unsurprising that SK Telecom T1 have come out of the first day 2-0.

At the time of writing though, we have only seen one day of play. The standings have SK Telecom T1 at the top, Flash Wolves at the bottom, then everyone else 1-1. It’s not groundbreaking for me to say that the Korean team will win this tournament, but based on the day one showings, here is how each of the other teams can make it to the finals… and how they can miss out on the knock-out stage entirely.

China’s World Elite
How they can win:
For anyone who caught today’s games, I don’t think I need to say more than 957. World Elite are known regionally as a late game team, but they forced an early lead against Flash Wolves, using the Kled-Elise combo to get out the gate as swiftly as they could.

957 finished the game 7/0/4 – it would have been hard for Flash Wolves to pre-empt this, but I really doubt he will get the Kled again.

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World Elite can use the fear that they have no doubt struck in their opponents’ hearts to know that at least one target ban is used on the Kled, and prepare their drafts accordingly.

There’s also Condi to contend with. Condi had the most kills and second most assists of all junglers in the LPL regular season, and comes into this tournament with plenty of hype.

Although he wasn’t the star of their first win, he was a key part of supporting it, and if for any reason 957 isn’t able to perform, Condi should be able to step up to support the rest of the team, and terrorise his opponents.

How they could flop:
957’s success against Flash Wolves wasn’t unnoticed, and Team SoloMid camped him hard in their game. World Elite need to be able to cope with this, and especially as the weekend goes on when it may happen to their other strong players too.

If World Elite aren’t able to transfer the weight of carrying the team amongst themselves, they will struggle with other teams catching on to their approach.

World Elite are the first on this list of several teams at MSI who made the mistake of thinking they could take their time playing, and were too slow in making calls against their opponents.

In their first game, they didn’t give Flash Wolves time to think, but in the second Team SoloMid turned that around on them.

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If they don’t correct that sluggishness, they will find their opponents running over them and their nexus.

Europe’s G2 eSports
How they can win:
G2 eSports have had really strong games, even in their loss to SK Telecom T1. They had some incredibly well organised and planned dives in the early game, especially their 13 1/2 minute five-man onto bot lane.

A key aspect of their ongoing success will be continuing to carefully plan and prepare for these kinds of plays, and to capitalise on their wins.

Zven has been playing at the top of his game so far this tournament. His 2/0/6 Caitlyn against Flash Wolves was far more impressive than the scoreline belies, with 518CS in a 46-minute game.

While his success was certainly enabled by his excellent teammates, his own positioning and play was absolutely world class.

Although he will certainly be targeted as the tournament progresses, if G2 eSports can protect and support him well, he could be a core part of their successes.

How they could flop:
Although SK Telecom T1 is the much stronger team here, that wasn’t the only factor in G2 eSports’ loss.

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There were multiple times when they seemed intimidated or unsure; if they had executed some of their late-game plays more swiftly, they may have been able to minimise the gold lead that their opponents were taking.

This is another team whose lack of conviction could come back to bite them.

G2 made a couple of questionable macro calls in the mid-game, especially the call to take rift herald in exchange for an inner turret.

Against a lesser team this might not have been a huge problem, but G2 eSports absolutely need to be more careful in adapting their macro game to the level of their opponents.

All the teams at MSI are top tier talent, and all of them will be able to take advantage of these kind of slipups.

North America’s Team SoloMid
How they can win:
Team SoloMid have shown time and again, that while sometimes they may have questionable individual play, they know their macro game.

In their game against World Elite, they used this knowledge to get them out of some sticky situations, and were able to win the game off it. They need to continue to play smart.

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Team SoloMid has been so regionally successful this split, and they have a whole support staff behind them. They have come so far off carefully playing their macro and calculating their plays.

They need to continue to play this way, and they have an excellent shot at being one of the top teams at MSI.

How they could flop:
Team SoloMid have very clear strengths, but unfortunately they don’t always play to them. In their game against Gigabyte Marines they played a team composition that Hauntzer himself said wasn’t their forte.

To be blunt, I cannot comprehend why they went with a protect the AD Carry composition, especially into the Gigabyte Marines who have beaten them before.

If Team SoloMid fall back into these compositions that don’t suit them, they’re not going to be successful.

There were also plenty of individual mistakes from Team SoloMid. These are all top tier players who do know better; it feels like they completely underestimated their opponents, despite almost losing to them in a best of five.

They were able to get it together for the game against World Elite, but they will need to keep it together for the rest of the group stage; if they falter in that, it will lose them games.

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South East Asia’s Gigabyte Marines
How they can win:
Three weeks into MSI and we know so much of what brings victory to the Gigabyte Marines. They play hard, fast, and chaotic.

At this rate, they can just keep doing what they’re doing; while they may struggle with this approach in best-of series, it’s absolutely working in single games.

As the tournament has progressed, each of the players has become a threat in their own way. Levi and Optimus are of course still the two major threats, but the outer lanes have played excellently too.

Even in their loss to SK Telecom T1, Stark had a great game, and dealt the most damage out of all champions.

Regardless of where Gigabyte Marines place at the end of this tournament, I don’t doubt that the players will continue to develop individually as they play against other top-tier teams.

How they could flop:
Losses for Gigabyte Marines could come in the same way as their wins. If their opponents can play in the knowledge that Gigabyte will want to go hard and fast, and are able to resist that play, Gigabyte Marines may be in trouble.

Gigabyte Marines probably need to have a trick or two up their sleeve as far as other playstyles, lest they get figured out by their opponents.

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Gigabyte Marines also showed a weakness in their mid-game against Team SoloMid. Although they did win, they had some difficulty progressing their lead; not in the indecisive way other teams have, but in that they have struggled to actually execute plays.

Although the game against SK Telecom T1 was close at the very beginning, SK Telecom T1 were much more aware of how to progress their game into a win, and if other teams can do that, then Gigabyte Marines may find it very difficult to snowball leads of their own.

Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao’s Flash Wolves
How they can win:
Before the tournament, Flash Wolves were my pick to come second. Back at IEM Katowice, the team dominated all of their opponents, and have not changed any of their own players since.

To progress from here, they really need to regain that feeling and that confidence, and carry it into their games.

If Flash Wolves can re-centre themselves after day one, they should look considerably better going into their next few games.

Sitting down and watching their first two games, it should be really clear to them where they were overly indecisive, and if they can speed up some of their own gameplay, they should be able to recover from their embarrassing day one.

How they could flop:
In short, it’s by playing like they did on day one. In their mid-games, they looked lost. They weren’t making decisions nearly as quickly as they need to against world-class teams; in local regions, teams often do have a bit more time to play slow and think, but up against the best teams in the world, they simply don’t have that luxury.

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Their drafts were also questionable. In their first loss to World Elite, they swiftly backed themselves into a corner, forced into a losing lanes before the second round of bans. Against G2 eSports, the team comp itself wasn’t bad, but it was built for the early game skirmishing and aggression, which again Flash Wolves were lacking.

If they don’t clean up their drafts, and don’t play for the comps they pick, they’re going to really struggle to move forward.

What a great tournament so far! It’s so hard still to call who will be the top four teams, but we don’t have to wait long to find out who it will be: games start at 4am AEST on the 12th through 15th, so by lunchtime on Monday we will have our top four. Who do you think will make it through the group stage?

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