MSI defending champions qualify for finals and await the winners of G2 versus T1 series.
Royal Never Give Up is the first team to qualify for MSI 2022 finals following their 3-0 win against Evil Geniuses. The LPL representatives looked dominant in the series and stopped EG from mounting a comeback at the last minute. Moreover, RNG will now battle for a chance to retain the MSI trophy and become the first to win three on Sunday.
Game 1 between both teams was a no-contest as RNG completely obliterated EG from the Rift. They started with a perfect dive onto Jeong "Impact" Eon-young in the top lane and kept on finding kills there. Within 12 minutes, RNG were already up 6 kills with over a 5,000 gold lead. The team shifted their attention to the bot lane and continued to increase their kill and objective count. After securing their third dragon of the game, RNG knocked down EG’s inhibitors and eventually the Nexus. RNG finished the game with 22 kills to one, no towers lost and almost an 18,000-gold lead.
Closer games, but the same outcome for RNG in the MSI semifinals
Unlike the first game, Game 2 was much better from EG as they managed to withstand the early pressure from RNG. They also swung the tempo in their favour after a good team fight and Ahri charms from Joseph Joon "jojopyun" Pyun .
However, the game started to slip away from them after a perfect ambush from Li "Xiaohu" Yuan-Hao onto Kacper "Inspired" Słoma. While RNG paid for their lives with the Baron steal, it turned out to be a worthy exchange as they quickly accelerated the game with it. After obtaining the Cloud Soul, RNG eliminated all members of EG and took down their Nexus.
Furthermore, the third game started in favour of RNG with early kills and control of all lanes. When it looked like they were about to take the first Baron and push their lead even further, EG caught them out in the river and picked up the Baron. With this, EG closed out the gold gap but still had a lot to do to push for a Game 4.
They managed to stop RNG's attempt to take down the base and secure the elder dragon. However, this was not enough to stop RNG who killed the Baron and eventually took down EG's base for the third time in a row in the MSI semifinals.
With the victory, RNG will now wait for the winners of the semifinals between G2 Esports and T1. Whichever team wins that series will face RNG in the finals at 1 a.m ET on May 29.
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