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: MAD vs. IW – IW win
MAD Lee Sin Olaf Zoe Tristana Nautilus
IW Urgot Volibear Orianna Kai’sa Leona

IW gank a lot; MAD focus objectives. Humanoid picks IW apart in team fights but IW group hard, key pick on Humanoid->Baron->inhib, another catch on Humanoid ends the game.

Game 2: PSG vs. PNG – PSG win
PSG Jayce Udyr Zoe Aphelios Thresh
PNG Gnar Lillia Leblanc Kai’sa Nautilus

River pressures sides. CarioK good attention to neutrals. PNG stack dragons, botch team fight execution despite decent setups. In the end it’s a Maple story, great performance.

Game 3: IW vs. PSG – PSG win
IW Gnar Olaf Orianna Kai’sa Nautilus
PSG Jayce Volibear Azir Tristana Leona

PSG lead the early macro, switch bot/top/bot, dragons, H1, FT. Doggo’s Tristana gets way ahead. Back-and-forth mid game, PSG win the the important fights, get soul, Baron. Ferret steals Elder to stall.

Game 4: PNG vs. MAD – MAD win
PNG Renekton Morgana Syndra Jhin Alistar
MAD Gnar Rumble Lucian Varus Tahm Kench

Kaiser dies lvl 1. Robo solo kills Armut, roams mid nicely, playing well. PNG slight lead, try for flanks; MAD attack flanker. MAD win crucial Baron fight->2 inhibs.

Game 5: PNG vs. IW – PNG win
PNG Sett Udyr Zoe Jinx Thresh
IW Renekton Volibear Orianna Kalista Blitzcrank

Both teams already out of the tournament, having a lot of fun. brTT outplays some bot dives. Everybody fights a lot but paiN is pretty much in “control” start to finish.

Game 6: PSG vs. MAD – MAD win
PSG Sion Rumble Syndra Tristana Leona
MAD Jayce Morgana Lucian Kai’sa Nautilus

Hanabi solo Ks Armut. Decisive plays on both sides reading opponent setups. MAD focus dragons. Kaiser good engages. MAD great Baron call and team fighting, good siege to end.

Takeaways

VAMOS BRASIL: Despite failing to advance, paiN Gaming can hold their heads high. Their 2-4 record could easily have been 3-3 and they didn’t look outclassed, definitely not to the same extent that Brazilian sometimes have in other recent international events. It felt good to see brTT show off some mechanics in PNG’s final game, even though the game didn’t mean anything, because he’s such an iconic player for the region and had really struggled at MSI overall.

MAD LIONS ADVANCE BY THE SKIN OF THEIR TEETH (AND THEIR TEETH DON’T EVEN HAVE SKIN): By defeating PNG in game 4, the MAD Lions booked their ticket to the Rumble Stage, but they didn’t get there without feeling a little pain along the way. (I’m hilarious.) Losing to IW in game 1 was a feels-bad moment, particularly after they were moments away from falling to PNG in the first round robin.

Carzzy told Laure on the English broadcast that he thought the team would go 6-0, suggesting he was disappointed with the team’s performance. In a post-match interview, Kaiser described advancing as “a relief,” and it’s easy to understand why. There is very little for MAD to be happy about in this tournament so far, aside from the fact that they are actually moving forward. There was some mental resilience involved in clutching out the necessary wins, and Humanoid has had some very strong sequences. The final game against PSG Talon, which had no actual consequences, was one of MAD’s best showings at MSI so far, too.

But on the whole the team should have expected much better things from the first stage of the tournament. Now it’s up to the coaching staff to refocus the team and make sure that they grow and improve enough to have a good showing in the next phase.