Regional champs clash on the MSI stage for another dominant best-of-five series, Top Esports vs G2 Esports.
Hungry for an MSI win, two regional powerhouses leapt from the lower brackets for a triumphant comeback. G2 Esports played their previous match-ups well, proving the haters wrong with their form and decisive macro. But they’ll need to push it to the limit for a shot to break their five-year losing streak.
Top Esports on the other hand has seen tremendous improvements since their last international bout. The Chinese underdogs were one match win away from the biggest upset against Gen.G, and reinforcing the LPL as the dominant region. Now that they’ve proven their strength, there’s no telling how far they can go.
G2 found three dominant games against the LPL’s 2nd seed at MSI 2024. Here’s how they did it:
Top Esports vs G2 Esports MSI 2024 Recap
Game 1
Credit: Screenshot by Paul Gono/ESTNN
TES’s cookie-cutter MSI comp would’ve given them more kills if HansSama wasn’t that guy.
BB and co. led the charge in a very explosive early game. With the first two kills in their pocket, G2 confidently cruised the early game to devastate TES’s botlane.
G2 Caps’ Vampiric Scepter gave the midlaner tons of sustain. And with Yike close by, “Baby Faker” played confidently despite having 10 health mid-gank.
The game-deciding teamfight happened shortly after. Blue-side approached dragon pit to deny G2 a second Mountain Drake. JackeyLove and Tian dealt high damage, but lost vision on half of the bot river thanks to Yike. When the dragon was a Smite steal away, Mikyx emerged from the fog to catch TES with a Solar Flare.
Credit: Screenshot by Paul Gono/ESTNN
Caps and HansSama leapt into a commanding lead 12 minutes in. The LEC #1 seed continued to press on, keeping each lane suppressed until it was time for a Baron.
Small blunders aside, G2 retook the fight yet again with BrokenBlade in the lead. The team had so much vision on Nashor, that TES’s stragglers had to concede the objective. And after another ace went G2’s way, they closed out game one in stylish fashion.
Quick Stats:
Top Esports
G2 Esports
Score
1
Gold
47.3k
61.4k
Kills
7
27
Turrets
2
11
Dragons
4
Barons
1
Game Time
28:44
Game 2
Credit: Screenshot by Paul Gono/ESTNN
Top Esports took a page from T1’s book by drafting a multi-carry comp with multiple win conditions.
G2’s perfect microplay gave them the first two kills of the game once again. Mikyx saving his shield for the very last moment gave G2’s ADC another gold lead. And Yike secured all three Void Grubs while playing respectfully.
The EMEA reps found success time and time again in the cross-map skirmishes. The objective was clear; to pin down JackeyLove to remove TES’ threat. And G2 were able to do so in an exemplary tower dive in the bottom lane.
Even when their team had a commanding lead, G2 Yike stayed hungry on Rek’Sai. A 4k gold lead put the LEC team ahead, but TES had the resilience to fight their way out of any position.
Eventually, both teams set up for Baron in an extended skirmish that had the crowd at the edge of their seats. Tian’s Jarvan IV had a clear line and enough sustain from their Rennata to steal the buff. But in the end, Caps and co. took Baron with them in the final fight for the game. HansSama finishes game two 12/0/7.
Quick Stats:
Top Esports
G2 Esports
Score
2
Gold
39.8k
51.8k
Kills
4
19
Turrets
2
9
Dragons
1
2
Barons
1
Game Time
24:43
Game 3
Credit: Screenshot by Paul Gono/ESTNN
G2 espected TES to focus their comp towards a stronger botlane, so BrokenBlade picked K’Sante — an extremely high-win rate champ — to put more power into G2’s topside.
While TES took the first blood this time around, G2’s mid and toplaners took the spotlight. Smart baits from Caps let his team collapse on Meiko in the midlane. Meanwhile, BB was playing spectacularly, using All Out to keep 369 from proxy-ing his wave, and building bruiser items.
Caps and co. scaled beautifully before both brawl comps met near Baron pit for the fight of the series. BrokenBlade was unkillable at this point. And that let him isolate key members in TES to kill their damage potential. With the score at 10-6, the midgame was G2’s.
A few dives from TES Creme buried his team deeper in their deficit. And as HansSama pressed the botlane, G2’s made a slow but sure push into the LPL team’s base for the third nexus of the series. G2 Esports goes the distance and will stay in the lower bracket.
Quick Stats:
Top Esports
G2 Esports
Score
3
Gold
57.9k
49.0k
Kills
16
6
Turrets
7
3
Dragons
1
2
Barons
1
Game Time
29:02
BrokenBlade: 16/3/18
Yike: 5/1/43
Caps: 14/3/11
Hans sama: 22/5/19
Mikyx: 5/5/45
G2 ON FIRE. pic.twitter.com/6270CcwHla
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) May 14, 2024
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Paul started writing game guides and match predictions for ESTNN’s editorial team in 2022. Since then, he’s covered big-ticket esports events and the latest news on tech and AI.
Source : Estnn