The results of the last day of MSI group stages were decided by not one, but two tiebreakers. The first tiebreaker was between Taiwan’s Flash Wolves and China’s Royal Never Give Up and determined which team would finish the week in first place. The second tiebreaker match was between North America and Europe that decided which of the teams would move on to the MSI knockout stages. Two tiebreakers really speak for this MSI so far, where most teams have looked quite inconsistent throughout the tournament and no clear favorite has emerged.
The match between Flash Wolves and RNG would determine the first seed moving into the playoffs, and the winning team could decide what team to face in the semifinals. The match was important for the two teams, since the winner could avoid Korea’s KINGZONE DragonX in the semifinals, who are still looking like an incredibly strong team despite their third place finish.
The first tiebreaker was decided very quickly when RNG’s starplayer “Uzi” gained an early advantage, and used this to utterly destroy Flash Wolves. Uzi has been one the tournament’s biggest stars so far, and is considered to be the best AD carry in the world. Giving him an early lead will almost always result in a loss, since he can easily carry the whole game by himself.
The final tiebreaker of the tournament was between Fnatic and Team Liquid. Not only would the loser be eliminated, but it was also the classic rivalry match between EU and NA that definitely upped the stakes. Fnatic was coming in after 3 losses in a row, with some really disappointing individual performances, whereas Team Liquid had only 1 loss in 2 days of play. The favorites for the tiebreaker were definitely Team Liquid, as they had looked much stronger in their last couple of games compared to Fnatic.
The tiebreaker however, showed completely different results. Although TL got first blood, the game was completely controlled by Fnatic. Through aggression and individual outplays FNC got a lead quite early in the game and never gave TL a chance to get back in the game. Especially Caps’ performance was noteworthy. He has been a shining star for FNC all tournament long, and is often the reason why they get ahead.
Despite the win for Fnatic, both them and Team Liquid ended with a 4-6 record. It has overall been quite a disappointing tournament for the Western teams, as they were both hyped up to be the best Western teams in a long time. Both organizations are highly prestigious and pour an incredible amount of resources in their players so it’s safe to say that these players are expected to do better, and that both teams have something to prove during the next international tournament.
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