The first week of MSI 2018 has come to a close and the two teams that move on from the Play In groups to the Play In knockout stage are Russia’s Gambit Gaming and Turkey’s SuperMassive eSports. Gambit Gaming looked dominant in their group and only dropped 1 game in total, netting them a 5-1 record. The same can be said for SuperMassive as they also came out with 5 wins and 1 loss and absolutely destroyed everyone on their first day of play.
Gambit Gaming
After their abysmal performance in worlds 2017 where they went 0-4 in the group stages, Gambit is looking for redemption. The team has 4 players with international experience and thus they are expected to do well in an international setting. They have 2 old-school legends being Danil “Diamondprox” Reshetnikov in the jungle and Edward Abgaryan on support who were both part of the infamous Moscow 5 squad that took the world by storm throughout the early years of League of Legends with often original strategies and aggressive play.
Both top laner PvPStejos and mid laner Kira became well-known during worlds 2016 when their team Ablus Nox Luna came in as an underdog but took down huge teams like G2, CLG and Korea’s ROX Tigers. With these players, advancing through to the group stages would be the minimum requirement for them to achieve the redemption they are looking for. To get their MSI spot they will have to go through Taiwan’s Flash Wolves in a best of 5 game.
SuperMassive eSports
On day 2 of MSI SuperMassive came in with a bang and got a perfect 3-0 record, beating every other team in their group. With brilliant performances from their top laner fabFabulous and AD carry Zeitnot the team only needed 2 victories on the last day to advance to the play in knockout stage. Their second day started shaky when they almost lost to Japan’s team PENTAGRAM but managed to win through a comeback victory. After which they obliterated Dire Wolves to claim their spot in the play in knockout stage, in which they will have to beat Vietnam’s EVOS eSports to advance to the MSI group stage.
With nothing left on the line, the final game of SuperMassive, against Kabum! became massive troll game where SuperMassive locked in 3 AD carries and sent their support to play in mid lane. With over 70 kills and lots of misplays the match is very lighthearted and a lot of fun to watch. If you missed it, it’s definitely worth your time to re-watch it.
A classic Rammus 1v2 double kill leads to an ace for @KaBuMESports! #MSI2018 pic.twitter.com/sstZ2nWdQB
— lolesports (@lolesports) May 6, 2018
