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

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DK vs. RNG: RNG 3-2

Game 1: RNG win
RNG Gragas Udyr Lucian Kai’sa Nautilus
DK Sion Morgana Akali Tristana Leona

RNG ahead on farm+FB, win Herald 5v5, stack dragons. RNG catch ShowMaker mid, get soul. DK win desperate fight, can’t Baron. RNG get Elder but lose fight, close on 2nd Elder.

Game 2: DK win
DK Lee Sin Morgana Xerath Tristana Leona
RNG Jayce Udyr Orianna Kai’sa Rell

Wei smart gank timing gets 2 Ks bot. RNG crush DK at Herald 5v5. DK steal 3rd dragon, get Ks and mid outer. Khan beautifully insecs Cryin->Baron. Good siege pressure to end.

Game 3: RNG win
RNG Gnar Udyr Ryze Kai’sa Leona
DK Nocturne Morgana Syndra Jinx Thresh

Wei cheese-ganks mid/top lvl 3, gets nothing. DK in control. RNG H1->FT ties up gold. RNG win dragon fight, back in it. DK pick off Wei, force Baron; Ming huge engage punishes. GALA assassinates Ghost to win, whoa.

Game 4: DK win
DK Aatrox Nidalee Renekton Tristana Rell
RNG Gragas Udyr Ryze Kai’sa Leona

DK play to top side. RNG slow the snowball. DK still H1, pick GALA->FD. RNG bad dive; DK snowball back online. RNG pick Khan, try Baron, ShowMaker dies to set up Ghost penta.

Game 5: RNG win
RNG Gragas Udyr Nocturne Kai’sa Leona
DK Aatrox Rumble Jayce Varus Tahm Kench

Wei FB gank bot. Ming’s perfect roam punishes ShowMaker’s lvl 1 lost Flash. RNG H1->FT; DK FD. RNG attack DK solo lanes with Noc ults, relentless pace, Xiaohu playmaking.

Takeaways

MING FOR MVP: There are a few strong candidates for Finals MVP.

You could credit Xiaohu for his lane pressure and team fight engages. You could point to Wei‘s creative pathing, which played a huge role in Royal Never Give Up‘s wins. You could say the blue side of the map was the MVP, since blue side won all five games, or you could take that a step further and give the pre-series coin flip the MVP since that’s why RNG was allowed to pick blue side for game 1 of the series. You could look at Cryin‘s ability to flesh out his champion at exactly the right time and bring high value on Lucian, Nocturne, and Ryze. Or if you value raw damage output and high kill numbers highly enough (which I do not), I suppose you could highlight GALA for his aggressive plays and clean-ups on five games of Kai’sa.

But I wouldn’t choose any of those. I choose Ming, whose gank receptions, incredibly well-timed roams, and clutch engages were the engine of the team in all of the most important moments.

Congratulations to RNG all around for their international title!

KHAN AND SHOWMAKER GAVE THEIR ALL: At the end of the day, DWG KIA just weren’t good enough today, but Khan put together his best games of the tournament and ShowMaker‘s champion pool flexibility, his sense of timing, and his reads on risk/reward kept DK within reach throughout the series.

We’ll see DK again at the World Championships; I’m very confident of that. And when we do, my eyes will continue to rest on DK’s solo lanes (and jungler!) to see what they can do.

Win Probability Charts

This series had some huge swings from early-game leads to massive comebacks, and the win probability charts show just how big those comebacks were.

Click each image within this gallery to see the chart of the game’s win probabilities in full size.

Game Notes

I take detailed game notes, as I’ve explained before, and I’ve outputted the entirety of my MSI 2021 notebook into a PDF in case you want to peruse it and see what stood out to me, or search for a player’s name and be systematic in appraising their performance throughout the tournament. Here’s the link to the PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L5yu173inOu2JMpLSrWaWg_hbq_f7QCs/view?usp=sharing

Photos courtesy Riot Games