The first day of MSI went as expected as all the team favoured team won their respective games. We got to see many old champions making come back in the patch 11.9 like Lee sin but in the top and mid lane instead of the jungle. Also some new meta pics like Morgana and Rumble in the jungle which was quite strong picks for the teams. We also got to see some old meta picks such as Hecarim, Kai’Sa and Xayah in the 2nd match of the day. As day one went as it should be nothing can be expected from the other matches as plenty of matches are still left.
Highlights from the Day 1 of MSI 2021:
DWG KIA defeated LCS Champions
The 1st match of MSI was a hype match between the two big regions as the viewers peaked at 1 Million. The WORLD Champions from Korea DAMWON KIA and the LCS winners Cloud9.
But the match didn’t live up to the expectation as DWG KIA won the match through their great macro knowledge and wave control.
For the 1st dragon, DK Canyon was successful at stealing the drake from C9 Blaber but at the same time giving first blood away to the C9. In the early game, C9 was ahead in the number of kills whereas DWG KIA was constantly ahead in the gold and towers lead.
In the late game, DK Khan caught C9 Fudge and then turning into Mega Gnar and using his ultimate to put 2 onto the wall combined with Beryl’s Leona ultimate won the team fight by getting 3 kills and turning that fight into a Baron and then getting C9 nexus to win the game.
Back to the old meta
The 2nd match of the MSI was between Gillette Infinity DetonatioN FocusMe. Although the MSI is played on patch 11.9, both team’s draft selection was the same as the time of patch 11.6.
Getting into the game, at 3rd minute INF mid laner Cody solo killed DFM mid laner Aria. The first team fight at the 20th minute was won by DFM with the help of clean engage by the DFM support Kazu as they killed INF JG and ADC and losing only their support and getting the first middle turret.
At the next team fight INF caught the flank by Kazu and then Cody stealing DFM Evi’s Akali ult to get three kills to shut down the DFM and then getting baron and winning team fight inside the DFM base to win out the game.
LPL Champions clean win over Oceanic Champions
In the 3rd match LPL winners, Royal Never Give Up was against Pentanet.GG.
There were no special plays, dives in the first 12 minutes of the game both team trading objectives although PGG got the first kill in the top side.
RNG with the help of their great macro play and map control got the mid tower and their first dragon at the 15th minute.
At the 17th minute, RNG jungler Wei got the Quadra kill in the team fight and put RNG in a massive gold lead. RNG got the early baron and took a 10k gold lead in just 20 minutes and won the next team fight inside PGG base and closed out the game in the 24th minute.
Pentanet.GG two defeats in a row
Pentanet.GG playing his 2nd match of the game vs Unicorns of Love and suffered yet another loss.
UOL got the first blood in the top lane and was ahead in the number of gold by getting the herald and the first turret in the early game. In the mid game, UOL kept putting pressure on the PGG Jungler and taking kills constantly in the team fight and turning the team fight to Baron PowerPlay at the 25th minute.
After taking the Baron UOL kept putting pressure on the PGG in the botlane and then winning the team fight with the Gnar ultimate and destroyed the PGG nexus.
The game that delivered
The 5th game was one hell of a match between fastpay wildcats and paiN gaming going back and forth to both the teams. IW showed a great early game whereas paiN Gaming showed brilliant mid and late-game team fights.
IW went for an early 2v2 fight in the bot lane and got the kill of PNG adc brTT. In return, PNG tried to a make dive at the top lane with the help of their jungler but ended up getting 1v2 by the IW top laner StarScreen. IW kept putting pressure on the botlane and kept getting kills and ended up getting 10 kills in only 9 minutes with a huge gold advantage in the early game.
PNG tried to turn the game back to their side by winning the first team fight in which PNG top laner ROBO got the triple kill. In the next few minutes, PNG punished IW side in the 5v2 and then secured the Baron and getting the gold lead first time in the game.
PNG lost 2 team fights in a row inside the IW base but didn’t affect them much as they had all three lanes pushed. PNG getting the next baron, won the team fight inside the IW base, and closed out the game in their favour.
MAD Lions take down PSG Talons
The last game of the day was between the Europe Champions MAD Lions and PSG Talons. MAD Lions dominated PSG throughout from early to late game and won the game.
PSG started the game by invading the red side of the MAD Lions jungle and getting an early advantage in the bot lane and jungle but not for long as MAD jumped back getting 2 kills in bot river with the help of their jungler.
At the 20th minute, MAD had the 6k gold lead by getting objectives and catching solo laner off-guard in the lanes with the help of some TP plays. MAD forced the PSG for a team fight at the baron and got 2 kills and secured the Baron kill at 23 minutes. With the help of Baron, MAD got an 11k gold lead and pushed all the lanes, won the team fight inside PSG base, and crushed the enemy nexus.
