RNG secure back to back MSI titles after taking down the LCK spring split champions. This win meant RNG has won the event an historic three times.
Royal Never Give Up has won the MSI 2022 finals after defeating T1 in a best-of-five series that went the full distance. The LPL representatives edged out T1 in the last game of the series with an impressive performance from start to finish. With this win, RNG becomes the first team to win three MSI titles and the second to win consecutive titles. Moreover, RNG's mid and support players became the first players ever to win three MSI titles.
This is the first time that RNG were able to get a win against T1 in best-of-five. So I believe this is a very meaningful and historic moment, I'm very happy about this.
A close MSI final series from T1 and RNG
With a dominant performance against G2, and a home crowd buff, T1 looked were favoured to win. However, things did not go their way as they fell to RNG in game one. Their early game draft composition failed to find any advantages to work with. Moreover, they failed to provide an answer to Xiaohu's Galio roams and Chen "Bin" Ze-Bin's Gwen in the top lane. While Xiahou didn’t get any kills, he ended the game with 11 assists. Meanwhile, Bin went deathless with a 13/0/3 KDA.
After losing game one, T1 switched strategy in the next game as they opted for a more late-game composition. The Jinx and TahmKench in the bot lane also provided comfort and security for Ryu "Keria" Min-seok and Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong. T1 maintained over a 1,000 gold lead throughout the early game and kept up with RNG’s tempo in the lanes.
Moreover, Choi "Zeus" Woo-je's Gangplank turned out to be the perfect answer for Bin as it was hard to easily gank him. RNG almost swung the game back in their favour with the Baron fight in the river. However, a heroic Lissandra play from Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok quashed any hopes of a comeback.
T1 quickly rushed to the enemy's base to take down the nexus after winning the fourth dragon fight. Furthermore, RNG repeated their game two performance in the third game with the Gwen and Viego back on their side. Yan "Wei" Yang-Wei made the game almost unplayable for Oner and the entire T1 team with his continuous ganks and perfect positioning. They closed out game three with a 10,000-gold lead and 24 kills. With RNG on match point, T1 needed a win to push for a game five.
Back on the blue side, T1 opted for comfort once again with the Jinx and Tahm Kench on their bot lane duo. Moreover, Faker was on the LeBlanc, one of his most played champions of all time. With a more even matchup, T1 took over the mid-game after a fight in the river for a dragon. After securing the baron, T1 marched down the mid lane to force a final game between both teams.
With the title on the line and RNG back on the blue side, they locked in the Gwen for Bin. Meanwhile, T1's decided to go with the Yuumi for Keria to pair up with the Jhin. The game quickly got out of T1's control after repeated kills onto Faker and a failed baron attempt. RNG ended the game after 25 minutes with just one tower lost and an 11,000 gold lead.
LPL's international dominance continues
Since winning the MSI in 2021, the LPL has won the two other international events held. The wins are a good sign for the region as it shows the high level of competition and development. It also makes them the region to beat in the upcoming 2022 World Championship.
When asked about the motivation behind the region's dominance, RNG's coach Zhu "KenZhu" Kai said, "I think is the passion towards League of Legends and the feeling of winning."