Insight Into Iceland is your daily recap of the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational.
Look below for Recaps and Takeaways from today’s six games, or watch the video version of the Takeaways.
Recaps
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Game 1: DK vs. C9 – DK win
DK Gnar Morgana Zoe Jhin Leona
C9 Gangplank Kindred Viktor Varus Tahm Kench
DK coordinate around Canyon’s Morg clear speed and bot lane trades. C9 scrap back with kills, dragon control, but Khan has smashed lane, snowballs himself, just takes over.
Game 2: INF vs. DFM – INF win
INF Gnar Udyr Sylas Xayah Alistar
DFM Akali Hecarim Renekton Kai’sa Rell
INF pick up solo and 2v2 kills in lane. DFM dive sides relentlessly, with mixed results. INF good intentionality on turrets, scale up Cody’s Sylas, get game-winning team fight at 23:00.
Game 3: RNG vs. PGG – RNG win
RNG Gnar Rumble Nocturne Kai’sa Nautilus
PGG Urgot Fiddlesticks Lee Sin Jinx Thresh
Game 4: PGG vs. UOL – UOL win
PGG Ornn Kindred Rumble Varus Tahm Kench
UOL Gnar Nidalee Orianna Kai’sa Alistar
Slow early game. Chazz Rumble prio helping but AHaHaCiK Nomanz better mid 2v2 play gains map control, leads to top dive, H1, giant UOL tempo snowball. UOL close cleanly.
Game 5: IW vs. PNG – PNG win
IW Sett Rumble Lee Sin Samira Alistar
PNG Darius Udyr Sylas Tristana Rell
Wild action in sides early. Holyphoenix gets ultra fed. Too much mid-game objective trading; IW not in control. PNG beefy team fight starts comeback, IW poor formations give up Baron.
Game 6: MAD vs PSG – MAD win
MAD Lee Sin Udyr Ryze Tristana Nautilus
PSG Gnar Nidalee Sett Kai’sa Leona
PSG nice lvl 1 gives River enormous pathing lead but Doggo ints in river right after, feeds MAD an even bigger lead. PSG not rolling over, until they suddenly do. Carzzy big carry performance.
Takeaways
CARRY DIVERSITY: The three highest DPMs of the day came from three different positions, and none of them were mid lane. MAD Carzzy led the way with 863 DPM on Tristana out of the bot lane, RNG Wei was second with 785 DPM on Rumble from the jungle, and PNG’s Robo racked up 715 DPM on a top lane Darius. It’s fun to see not only a diversity of champion picks so far, but a diversity of damage sources and styles of team comps. Hopefully it will continue!
COLD FUDGE: The opening game against DWG KIA was definitely not the showing Fudge hoped for. He got destroyed in lane by Khan, giving up map control that led to Blaber being picked off (which was also a mistake by Blaber); lost the first turret without much jungle intervention on either side; and got picked off in his own jungle in a game state where C9 actually had compositional advantages that could have served them well in 5v5s. This felt like January Fudge, unfortunately. But that shouldn’t really be unexpected, since the start of MSI represents a similar escalation of difficulty that Fudge faced going into the start of his LCS career earlier this year. The real story for Fudge will be whether he can find his footing back before the end of the tournament, or whether he’ll need to take these lessons back home for summer.
ARIA OF SELF-DOUBT: In a media scrum, Aria said he thinks the mid laners at the event are “way stronger” than him, and chose to rank himself at the “very bottom” of the mid laners at MSI. I’ve heard from many people who have a lot more confidence in him than that, so I hope he can show it with his play despite being so self-deprecating in interviews!
OP PICKS: There are several consensus OP picks right now, with champions like Rumble, Lee Sin, Morgana, Zoe, Varus, Nocturne, and Jayce all seeing high presence in the early games of the tournament. When there are so many hotly contested picks, it’s tempting to let more of them through, especially as red side, and just try to “trade up.” I want to see whether that happens as we go deeper in the tournament. Ironically, it’s Gnar who started the day 4-0, until finally losing in the final game of the day to go to 4-1.
SUB TROUBLE: PSG Talon were forced to leave Unified at home and bring an emergency sub to MSI, so Doggo slotted in. He had a very rough first showing, with two key mistakes that cost PSG the game, but the good news is that they were simple, straightforward mistakes that shouldn’t be expected to show up every game. On the whole, PSG actually looked pretty decent, good enough to support Kaiwing’s claim in a media scrum afterwards that there is very little gap between the PCS and the major regions.