RNG secures 1st spot in MSI finals by defeating PSG Talon

The first finalist of the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational is the LPL’s Royal Never Give Up, who beat PSG Talon in the first semifinal match. 

After a lot of best-of-one games at MSI, fans finally got to see some of the best teams in a best-of-five format today. The first semifinal was between RNG and PSG Talon, which ended up being an amazing matchup. In the end, it was the LPL champion that came out victorious 3-1 and lived up to expectations by reaching the finals. 

The two teams were neck-to-neck right off the bat. Both teams opted for strong late-game compositions, which gave fans a lot of hectic fights to enjoy. PSG Talon got ahead early, but the bot lane of RNG started to answer back. At 25 minutes, the teams were even in gold and everything came down to execution in fights and objective control. 

As seen previously during the tournament, RNG slowly took control over the map with solid macro play. This resulted in an important Baron Buff, leading to the cloud soul. From this point, RNG had too many buffs to contend with and choked out PSG Talon in 45 minutes.  

In the second game, PSG Talon went in with a much more aggressive approach. With a fast tempo set by jungler Kim “River” Dong-woo on Udyr, PSG Talon got a solid early lead. After 12 minutes, PSG Talon had secured the first tower and a 2,000 gold lead. An early game like this was necessary to interrupt RNG’s controlled playstyle and that execution was rewarded. 

With fed players in every lane, there was next to nothing RNG could do to stop the snowball from rolling. Bot laner Chiu “Doggo” Tzu-Chuan’s Tristana was ultimately the big win condition for PSG Talon despite being the team’s substitute for this tournament. In just 29 minutes, the PCS representatives tied up the series. 

After a good performance from both bot lanes, most of the action in game three saw the bot lanes being victimized. After just three minutes, a total of six kills had gone down, with RNG coming out ahead. This opened up an opportunity to get leads in all three lanes, which quickly put the Chinese favorites back into control of the series and on match point.

RNG was on the cusp of reaching the MSI final, but PSG Talon didn’t let go of the series without putting up a fight. After trying to win games through the bot lane, PSG Talon put focus on top this time around. RNG was in charge for most of the game, but PSG Talon kept it close with a Baron steal and great team fight. Ultimately, RNG was too strong with the Infernal soul and sealed the deal after securing the Elder Dragon. 

RNG will face either DWG KIA or MAD Lions at MSI final

With one exciting semifinal match done, DWG KIA and MAD Lions will play for the last spot in the final tomorrow. This match will be the LEC’s chance to take down the defending world champion and push to keep the MSI trophy in Europe. So far, DWG KIA has shown solid play and managed to beat MAD Lions twice. In a best-of-five, anything can happen but the LEC champion will have to bring something special to the table. 

The semifinal between DWG KIA and MAD Lions kicks off on May 22.