Image: LoL Esports
G2 Esports has been eliminated from MSI 2023.
Kicking off the second week of MSI 2023’s Bracket Stage was a matchup between Bilibili Gaming and G2 Esports. BLG had previously swept a match against Cloud 9 last week, while G2 lost to Gen.G. This week, we saw BLG come out on top after a dominating series of matches against G2 who simply seemed out of their depth. G2 Esports’ Lower Bracket loss has resulted in the team being eliminated from MSI 2023.
The first match began with BLG performing well in the top lane, setting up skirmishes in their favour while G2 wrestled for a lead. BLG was building up quite an advantage over the opposing team in kills and gold but by the 17-minute mark, G2 had managed to even the odds and make it anyone’s game.
A massive fight at the 24-minute mark saw BLG utterly wipe out G2 following a struggle for the Baron, which only worsened the latter team’s odds. Over the next few minutes, BLG held tight to their 5k gold and 10 kill lead, but took their time to approach the enemy base. A teamfight against G2 saw BLG come out on top and able to take down turrets unopposed, allowing them to march into the base and score a win.
The second match went down much the same as the first, only slower. Both teams played things safe in the first 20 minutes, choosing to chase after objectives and gold rather than kills. By the 24 minute mark, BLG had eight kills to G2’s six, and a mere 1k gold lead. BLG did have three more objectives and three more dragons however, giving them an edge. G2 appeared to be making a comeback by the half-hour mark, taking control of the game despite losing a dragon to the opposing team.
BLG lost control of the map and gave G2 a 4k gold lead, setting the latter team up for success. This was one of the longest matches we’ve seen in the Bracket Stage thus far, but G2 marched into the enemy base 36 minutes in and took an extremely impressive win.
By the third match, it was clear that we were watching a tight competition. Both teams were doing well keeping things level even 18 minutes into the game, with gold, kills and objectives equalised. G2 took a strong lead after coming out on top of the next few skirmishes, and went into the 30-minute mark leading in gold, kills and objectives. Both team clashed over a dragon, but BLG scored a much-needed win and wiped G2 out. BLG then rolled right into the Baron and downed it, turning the tables on G2. This wound up being fatal for G2, as BLG used that lead to crush their enemy team’s base.
The fourth and final match of the day started off with a rather unfortunate pause, which came in the middle of G2 nabbing an early double kill on BLG. Once the game resumed, BLG came back swinging and found a pretty strong 4k gold lead in the midgame. Unlike previous matches of the day, G2 never seemed to bounce back from losing the early advantage to BLG, and continued to operate at a gold deficit all the way until the end. BLG won this one with relative ease.
Next, we’ll see Gen.G Esports go up against Cloud9.
