League of Legends MSI finals preview: G2 vs. Team Liquid
By Josh Tyler
Key Match-Up: Caps vs. Jensen
Each team has a mismatch in the two outer lanes that they’ll be looking to exploit. In the top lane, Wunder has proven to be a far superior laner to Impact, even though Impact has stepped his game up massively to carry team fights. On the other side, though, Perkz and Mikyx are a clear weakness for G2 and they happen to be facing off against probably the best bot lane in the tournament in Liquid’s Doublelift/CoreJJ duo.
That leaves the mid lane match-up, where the two teams’ styles are going to clash in a massive way. Both players have similar champion pools, with Leblanc and Akali being among both of their most-played champions. However, Caps has been by far more aggressive and consistent at getting an early lead in lane.
1v1, I’d expect for Caps to have a massive advantage, but Jensen is one of the best players in the world at not allowing other players to get an advantage over them. And if he enters the mid-to-late game even there aren’t many mid laners I’d consider better in a team fight.
MSI Semi-Final Prediction: Team Liquid 3 – 1 G2 Esports
Two big considerations came to bear in making this prediction. First, G2’s style of play – though more in line with the current meta – is risky to pull off. This was shown in their series against T1, as they had a hard time not only getting that lead, but keeping it going without T1 making massive mistakes. This will be especially difficult against Liquid, who are tailor-made to hold off early agression like that G2 relies on.
The second factor is that, in their semi-final series, TL just looked considerably cleaner than G2. And this was against the tougher opponent. Stylistically, each of the two finalists opponents in the semis were very similar to the teams they’ll be facing now. Considering how much trouble T1 gave G2 and how little trouble IG gave TL, it’s hard to imagine that Liquid will fare worse against G2.
Next. Flame Friday: how Invictus Gaming choked to Team Liquid. dark
Who will secure the final victory of MSI? Do you agree with this prediction or do you think G2 will come out on top? Flash your #TLWin or #G2Win in the comments below!