Image credit: LoL Esports
It was a back-and-forth series between Bilibili Gaming and T1 at the Mid-Season Invitational with the LPL coming out on top.
T1's second rematch of the Mid-Season Invitational was against Bilibili Gaming in the lower bracket final, which saw the LPL Spring Split champions emerge victorious after a back-and-forth series between the two teams. With BLG in the grand finals, they will have another rematch against Gen.G Esports after the latter won the first series convincingly.
Not only did BLG secure a grand final appearance for a second time at MSI, but they also managed to eliminate T1 in the lower bracket final once again. It was an exciting best-of-five series that kept both sets of fans on the edge of their seats as BLG took the first game after some great play from Zhuo “Knight” Ding on Taliyah as he secured six kills to go with 10 assists while only dying twice.
But even when BLG were clearly the more dominant team from the first game, T1 did not just sit back and managed to respond with some great plays of their own. Ryu “Keria” Min-seok was one such player as his Nautilus was one of the few bright sparks in the series with a crucial triple kill during the first match.
The momentum would drastically shift to the other end in the second match as Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong had a great showing on Draven as he managed seven kills with three assists and two deaths. Gumayusi was arguably one of T1's best players during the tournament and it showed after a clean triple kill to secure the second game for T1. With the series score now tied at 1-1, it was BLG who came back swinging in the third.
This time, they managed to keep T1 at bay for most of the third game as the likes of Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin and Zhao “Elk” Jia-Hao turned out to be the key turning points. Bin and Elk were the only players from BLG who had a flawless performance on Twisted Fate and Senna alongside getting six kills apiece. This was one of the few games that T1 looked far from being at its best and BLG took full advantage of the opportunity.
Game four was a do-or-die match for T1 as their backs were against the wall. And like clockwork, the reigning world champions were able to pull something out of their hats. And that something was Moon “Oner” Hyeon-joon as his Viego turned out to be the difference-maker in the fourth match. Oner managed to get 12 kills alongside nine assists with three deaths; an exemplary performance for any jungler with the series on the line.
This was T1's second playoff series that went to Silver Scrapes and unfortunately, this was where their luck ran out. Despite being able to bounce back twice with great performances, T1's inconsistency came back to bite them once again as they faltered in the fifth and final game. This was the perfect opening for BLG as Bin's Camille took full advantage of T1's misplays as it was him and Elk that managed a flawless performance once more.
Bin was playing like a man possessed as he got eight kills with zero deaths and four assists while Elk with his Senna again got five kills and 13 assists to go with zero deaths. That win in Silver Scrapes also meant that it will be Bin's third-straight MSI grand finals with his last victory coming with Royal Never Give Up back in 2021.
