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Credit: Lee Aiksoon/Riot Games

MSI Day 1 – Fiestas, trash-talk aging like milk, macro gods T1, and EU >NA




The Mid-Season Invitational is off to a flying start after the first six games have concluded. “Boring” is the opposite of what the day had in store for us, but we have yet to witness most of the teams' full powers.

Gigachad fighters Saigon Buffalo lose to cringe macro abusers T1 


For a solid few minutes, Saigon Buffalo made us think that T1 could bleed.
It lasted until the mid game, where T1's macro and the individual mechanics showed up, and they comfortably closed out the game.
 
 
Although Saigon Buffalo lost, we saw some exciting early aggression from them. They don’t care who their opponent is. Friendly advice: beware of them. 

Mistake Ornn pick is no problem for Evi, DetonatioN FocusMe 


DetonatioN FocusMe confidently defeated Team Aze with a “happy little accident:” in an
interview with Inven Global , DFM’s Harp shared that he accidently picked Ornn for Evi as he was nervous during the draft. Kudos to Evi for being ready to play anything. 

The biggest difference-maker was that DFM’s bot lane came to play a professional LoL game today; whereas Team Aze’s was on solo queue duty and inted from start to finish. 


G2-0's Day 1 was as confusing as it was entertaining
 


Before the day started, we expected G2 Esports to steamroll ORDER and to have a close game against Evil Geniuses, but it was the opposite that happened.
 

G2 underestimated ORDER and tried to pet a kangaroo but ended up getting punched. The nearly disastrous turn of events was averted when a massive ORDER baron throw gave G2 a huge lead. From there, they stabilized themselves and won. 


On the other hand,
G2 Esports Caps’s Anivia completely stomped Evil Geniuses. The game wasn’t even close, as G2 dominated from start to finish, and EG could do nothing in retaliation. Nobody can blame the LCS team for not knowing that Caps could play Anivia; after all, neither did anyone on Earth except G2 themselves. 

Also, it seems like jojopyun took a page from Jensen’s playbook with the “can’t wait to clap faker xd” tech. 

Water is wet in Group B BRAZIL BRAZIL BRAZIL 


Meanwhile, Group B was the least exciting one, save for one of the results.
 

For some reason, fastPay Wildcats picked an early-game composition against an LPL team, Royal Never Give Up–and it ended as brutally as LPL fans would expect. The Wildcats never stood a chance, and it was just another day in the office for RNG, literally, as they played from their office. 

Then, somehow, PSG Esports vs. RED Canids was one-sided, except that RED won without conceding a kill. We witnessed the rise of Brazil, as they have utterly stomped PSG. 

That win serves as a huge confidence boost for the players and CBLoL fans (including CBLoL casters), and the team’s chances of qualifying to the Rumble stage skyrocketed. After DFM’s 2021 Worlds run, we might finally witness another great underdog story.