Insight Into Iceland is your daily recap of the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational.

Look below for Recaps and Takeaways from today’s games, or watch the video version of the Takeaways.

Recaps

You can also get these recaps live on Twitter.

Game 1: C9 vs. PGG – C9 win
C9 Jayce Udyr Zoe Senna Tahm Kench
PGG Yorick Morgana Syndra Samira Nautilus

C9 control early pathing but PGG FB Perkz. C9 farm, stack drakes, almost lose bot skirmish, get H1, mid outer. Picks top->20m Baron. Not cleanest C9 game but straightforward.

Game 2: RNG vs. PSG – PSG win
RNG Gnar Rumble Viktor Kai’sa Leona
PSG Lee Sin Morgana Zoe Tristana Nautilus

PSG get double crab, win bot and mid skirmishes, big early lead. PSG win more fights, 3 drakes. RNG hang around until PSG pick off an exposed Cryin->Baron and inf. soul.

Game 3: DK vs. MAD – DK win
DK Lee Sin Morgana Zoe Kai’sa Sett
MAD Shen Udyr Viktor Tristana Nautilus

Elyoya FB gank mid lvl 3; Canyon dbl crab. DK get Ks bot. MAD FD; DK H1+FT top. Close dragon fight goes DK’s way. MAD play well from behind until Carzzy gets caught, DK Baron.

Game 4: RNG vs. PGG – RNG win
RNG Gragas Rumble Nocturne Varus Nautilus
PGG Jayce Nidalee Akali Tristana Leona

PGG lvl 1 and pathing nets FB at top crab. Then Cryin solo Ks Chazz, GALA Ming get kills in lane, game ends quick.

Game 5: C9 vs. DK – DK win
C9 Renekton Morgana Orianna Tristana Alistar
DK Gangplank Udyr Viktor Kai’sa Nautilus

DK get FB+FD. Blaber ganks top net H1. DK find picks, dragons. C9 pick Ghost, get drag, buy time. DK get soul but C9 find picks, punish DK Baron. DK win Elder fight.

Game 6: PSG vs. MAD – PSG win
PSG Gangplank Udyr Viktor Xayah Leona
MAD Gnar Rumble Orianna Kai’sa Nautilus

PSG lvl 1 invade goes 1-1 but River gets huge jgl lead. PSG control bot, River ganks relentlessly. Jungle diff and overall gold lead are insurmountable early on.

Takeaways

PSG EXTEND THEIR TALONS: This was a massive day for PSG Talon, starting with a massive upset over RNG and ending with an outright stomping of the MAD Lions. For me, Kaiwing was the hero. His 2/3/17 game against RNG was a workshop of how to land Nautilus hooks, and his laning and roaming on Leona were impressive against MAD.

Maple has also been a standout for PSG this tournament, which is great to see from a player with such a great legacy of LMS/PCS and international success. His scorelines in his last five games have been 8/0/7, 7/1/8, 2/2/7, 7/1/9, and 1/0/9. He’s playing assassins, control mages, and utility picks.

In a media scrum at the end of the day, Maple provided some classic understatement by describing himself as being “in good form” and attributing his success to the synergy with his teammates.

Maple may not be willing to overly hype himself, so I can do it for him: what a great tournament he’s having!

RNG CRYIN’: Royal Never Give Up‘s unexpected loss to PSG can be attributed to a variety of factors but one very influential piece was the poor play of their mid laner, Cryin. Specifically, Cryin failed to use some early lane priority he had secured with his Viktor to lean into the river and help Wei fight for a scuttle crab, and a bitlater he was slow to rotate out of lane to join an emerging 3v3 skirmish. Later in the game, he was caught out of position during a PSG Baron setup and ate a Zoe bubble from Maple, leading to a backbreaking team fight loss and a PSG Baron that effectively ended the game.

To Cryin’s credit, he made good use of some early prio against Pentanet.gg and earned revenge on Chazz with a solo kill, but that doesn’t count for too much. With a subpar group stage already behind him and a showing like he had against PSG, Cryin has a lot of work to do to redeem his personal storyline in this tournament.

Photos courtesy Riot Games