The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational is officially under way. The tournament started off with a bang with defending world champions Damwon KIA dismantling Cloud9 in game one.
Damwon KIA is on the board at the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational with the defending world champions putting on a clinic in game one against North America's Cloud9. All eyes were firmly locked on the mid-jungle match-up, but the star of the show was Kim "Khan" Dong-ha.
Draft: Damwon locks in Morgana
With the recent patch changes to the jungle, fans did not have to wait long for one of the most played picks in solo queue to make their way to the professional stage. Typically played in the support role, Morgana has been one of the most used champions in the jungle and is ranked in the god tier on Mobalytics. Damwon wasted little time showcasing to the world how strong their read on the meta is. Here is how the drafts rounded out for both teams:
Zven gives Cloud9 first blood
It did not take long for fans to see some action, with Cloud9 punishing a flash from Cho "Beryl" Geon-hee to secure first blood for the North American side.
Cloud9 did well to weather the Damwon storm with their bottom lane picking up multiple kills , but Damwon were slowly chipping away on the top side with Khan being able to find a solo kill onto Robert "Blaber" Huang in his own jungle as well as solo killing the top tower.
While Cloud9 was able to disengage from fights well, Damwon was in full control of the game at all times. Cloud9 could simply not keep up with the global pressure from DWK with multiple towers being taken down by the fifteen-minute mark.
Damwon's class was on full display
In the latter stages of the game, Damwon showed their class with multiple team fights to put them massively in the lead. These team fight losses put Cloud9 on the back foot and despite gaining multiple kills, by this stage in the game it was not enough. These fights broke out from Khan being able to pick on Ibrahim"Fudge" Allami to put C9 under all sorts of pressure.
Damwon KIA was able to secure the baron and push for the victory around the 27-minute mark. This was a unique game of League of Legends. Damwon's class came through in the end but there were some positives for Cloud9 to take away. League of Legends analyst and content creator Nick "LS" De Cesare expressed this in his post-match tweet.
Cloud9 and Damwon KIA returns tomorrow at MSI 2021 where they will face DetonatioN FocusMe and Gillette Infinity Esports respectively.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest League of Legends news as well as constant MSI updates.