League of Legends fans witnessed the best of the best clash on the international stage at this year’s Mid-Season Invitational (MSI 2022) held live in Busan, South Korea.
The annual tournament concluded with LPL representative Royal Never Give Up making history as the first three-time MSI champions. The Chinese team also successfully defended their title after also winning last year’s MSI.
RNG bested tournament favorites T1, clinching the best-of-five series 3-2, taking home the lion’s share of the minimum guaranteed prize pool of US$250,000. Despite experiencing a rough start where they had to replay their first three matches during the Group Stage due to latency issues, the team simply dominated each stage of the competition to become MSI 2022 champions.
Looking back, the invitational featured heart-stopping highlights and incredible plays that showcased peak League of Legends. Here’s a look back at the top five plays from the Groups to the Knockout Stage.
All the best plays from MSI 2022
5. G2 caPs’ great escape
G2 Esports star player Rasmus “caPs” Winther brought out his A-game early in the competition with his Yasuo in the mid lane during their MSI Group C match against Evil Geniuses in the second round-robin. Using the Ionian swordsman, he pulled a Houdini and made a nail-biting escape from EG during the early game.
The G2 mid laner landed in a tricky situation between Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme’s Tahm Kench and EG’s turret. He began his great escape by repositioning himself, casting Sweeping Blade onto a nearby minion, and dodging Tahm Kench’s Tongue Lash.
Kacper “Inspired” Słoma’s Viego arrived at the scene thinking they could secure the trade kill, but the G2 player managed to dodge all of EG’s skillshots. What’s more impressive was caPs’ HP, which was running very low, all while he outran his opponents with perfectly-timed movement and efficient use of Yasuo’s abilities.
4. G2 takes down T1 with an unstoppable wombo combo
G2 continued their dominance during the Rumble Stage opening match, beating T1 and ending their 26-match win streak with a team composition centered around caPs’ Yasuo.
Fans saw an incredible late game clash from the LEC team around the Baron Nashor pit, contesting T1 for the crucial monster buff. First, G2 bot duo Raphaël “Targamas” Crabbé’s Rakan and Victor “Flakked” Lirola Tortosa’s Kalista delayed the Slicing Maelstrom of Choi “Zeus” Woo-je’s Kennen and kept the top laner airborne using a combination of their champions’ skills. This was followed up by a knock up from Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik’s Ornn, preventing Zeus from participating in the clash. Then, Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski‘s Diana swooped in and landed a double kill on Zeus and Ryu “Keria” Min-seok‘s Rell.
CaPs finished the fight using Yasuo’s ultimate on Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong’s Tristana, securing the third kill and leading his team to an uncontested Baron.
3. Wei singlehandedly defends RNG’s base
Living up to his team’s name Royal Never Give Up, jungler Yan “Wei” Yang-Wei fought till the end during their match against VCS representative Saigon Buffalo during the Rumble Stage. Wei popped off with Viego, his most-played champion this season, and successfully defended their base all by himself.
During the late game, SGB took down three RNG members while destroying the Chinese team’s last two top lane turrets in the process. Trần “BeanJ” Văn Chính’s Lee Sin was just about to eliminate Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao’s Vex, but the mid laner activated his Stopwatch in time.
Like a boss, Wei’s Viego swooped in and rescued Xiaohu by shutting down BeanJ and Đinh “Taki” Anh Tài’s Nautilus to save their base and prevent the Vietnamese team from destroying their Nexus.
Wei further showed his dominance over the champion, helping the team score an ace in the final clash to take the game and climb first to the Rumble Stage standings.
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2. Faker’s flash juke
Faker, Faker, playmaker!
Three-time Worlds champion Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has been to numerous international tournaments, but the legendary Korean player continues to stir the crowd with his next-level plays and mindblowing moves.
The Unkillable Demon King juked his way out of danger during Game 3 of their Semifinals match against G2 Esports. After getting caught in caPs’ Sleepy Trouble Bubble, the iconic mid laner positioned himself near the Baron Nashor pit, as if he was getting ready to flash inside the cave.
From caPs’ perspective, the most natural thing for Faker’s Akali to do would be to flash on his team’s side of the map. Instead, Faker pulled some reverse psychology on the G2 mid laner, flashing to a nearby bush and losing his eager pursuer.
1. Xiaohu’s Lissandra is just plain OP
The whole world took notes and paid attention to Xiaohu’s Lissandra during game 5 of the MSI 2022 Final between RNG and T1.
Around the 22-minute mark, Xiaohu cast his ultimate, Frozen Tomb, and then activated his Hourglass just in time after Faker’s Ahri engaged on his Lissandra near the dragon pit. While the T1 members followed up on their initial attack, Wei’s Rakan landed The Quickness on four members of the Korean team.
As soon as Xiaohu got out of stasis, RNG went in full force and eradicated almost all of T1, securing the base and destroying the Nexus to win the series and become MSI 2022 champions.
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READ MORE: Royal Never Give Up make esports history as the first three-time MSI champions
