League of Legends’ 2021 Mid Season Invitational wrapped up in spectacular fashion, with China’s Royal Never Give Up taking the title. DWG KIA put up a strong fight, pushing the series to five games. This marks RNG’s resurgence as the best team in the world currently, just like 2018 when RNG won MSI. Xiaohu and Ming were part of that 2018 victory. And just like 2018, the LPL-LCK finals went in the LPL’s favor.
RNG Strong from Day One
RNG absolutely dominated the Group Stage in Group A, putting together an 8-0 win streak versus Pentanet.GG and Unicorns of Love. From there, they moved into the Rumble Stage, where RNG strung together seven wins and three losses. The LPL representative actually took second in Rumble Stage, one win under DWG KIA.
With DWG choosing MAD Lions for their semifinals matchup, RNG had to face PSG Talon in a best-of-five to make it to MSI Finals. This matchup was also a bit of a call back to 2018, where Hanabi and Maple’s Flash Wolves fell to RNG in their first place tiebreaker match. In this year’s semifinals, PSG only took one game off RNG, as the LPL representative proved more clutch in the late game.
Coming into the Finals, DWG seemed slightly favored by most. However, everyone knew RNG could win it all with proper gameplay. Jungler Wei consistently got his laners ahead and took control early. DWG’s victories came off the back of superior objective control and patience in the mid game. In the end, RNG crushed Game 5 with heavy engage out of all members. In his third year of professional LPL, bottom laner GALA came away with the MVP of the series.
China is Back on Top
This MSI title, specifically over DWG, marks a return of power to the LPL. China’s regional representatives won the League of Legends World Championship in 2018 and 2019, as well as MSI 2018. However, the LCK took last year’s World Championship and 2020 MSI was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions. 2021 is looking like an LPL resurgence to international dominance. Between now and Worlds 2021, the LCK, the LEC and the rest of the global competitors will need to regroup and play catch-up. With this win, Riot will allot four slots to the LPL and LCK for Worlds 2021.
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