The Most Anticipated Matchup of This Year’s MSI
Royal Never Give Up and T1 both arrived into the 2022 MSI as the strongest teams in the tournament by far, and the fact that they haven’t met each other since 2019 Worlds, makes this match much more exciting to watch. SKT T1 managed to take down RNG back in 2019, although there are two very important things to take into consideration: RNG wasn’t the strongest LPL representative back then, and the two teams played with very different rosters, right now Faker is the only remaining player from that roster, and the same goes for Xiaohu and Ming in RNG.
During the group stage, T1 had to play against Saigon Buffalo, Detonation FocusMe, and Team Aze, on the other hand, Royal Never Give Up would play versus PSG Talon, Red Canids, and Istanbul Wildcats, making it safe to say that both teams wouldn’t be dropping a single game. And as the lol odds indicated, both teams had a flawless run throughout the group stage, and not a single team came close to taking them down. But none of that matters because now because during the first day of the rumble stage, both teams lost their game against G2, which means they’ll have to try even harder to get that 1st-place finish they both want.
Royal Never Give Up Adapted Very Well to The MSI Meta
Some teams like Team Aze and Evil Geniuses clearly struggled at adapting to this year’s MSI meta, mostly because their way of playing are very different to the one that most teams in this tournament are playing. From what we’ve seen so far, the teams that are playing a very aggressive early game and draft around champions that excel at getting early leads, are the teams having the most success in the event, and Royal Never Give Up is one of those teams.
The thing that might have surprised a lot lol betting experts is that Royal Never Give Up didn’t necessarily arrive into the tournament playing this way. In fact, during their LPL against Top Esports, they showed a lot of weaknesses surrounding their early game, mostly surrounding their laning phase.
But playing a good early game against Top Esports might be one of the hardest tasks out there, considering they have some of the best laning in the world, fortunately for Royal Never Give Up, they adapted pretty well have been looking very decisive in the way they fight around early neutral objectives and the type of leads they are able to get during the landing phase.
Now they’ll have to face up against T1, a team that isn’t known for having the strongest firepower when it comes to late-game teamfights as they rather focus around their laning phase and their mid game skirmishes around neutral objectives. Royal Never Give Up will have to put up their best performance so far if they want to overcome T1’s powerful laners.
T1’s Didn’t Look Too Hot Against G2 Esports
During their T1’s perfect run, a lot lol gambling experts were claiming that T1 was the strongest team in the entire world just because of the fact they were having a really good streak, but right now, people are starting to question if T1’s perfect run happened only because of how good they are at League of Legends.
In the 2022 LCK Spring Split, a lot of the teams had to play multiple times with their subs throughout the season due to the situation regarding COVID, in fact, T1 and Kwandong Freecs were the only two teams that played with the same 5 players the entire split. As the hype has died down a bit, it’s valid to ask if T1 achieved a perfect run only because of their performance, or if the COVID situation might have played somewhat in their favor.
But that’s a question we’ll never have an answer for, and right now in the 2022 MSI, T1 has shown that they are one of the strongest, if not the strongest contender for the title. During the group stage, they completely obliterated the rest of the teams and finished the phase with the lowest game duration, the highest K/D, and the highest GDM of the tournament, proving that they are the strongest team when it comes to getting early leads.
Royal Never Give Up vs T1 Game Information
- Date: Saturday, May 21st
- Time: 8:00 am ET
- Live Stream: Twitch.tv
Royal Never Give Up vs T1 Predictions
This one might be one of the hardest predictions to make for the Rumble Stage as these two teams haven’t faced each other yet, and they are the strongest teams in the tournament by far. We already went over how these two teams looked during the group stage and what makes them the favorites to win the whole thing, but now we have to think about how they will come prepared for this match.
T1 has mentioned in multiple interviews that they haven’t played anywhere close to their full potential because they are still trying to figure out the meta and which picks are the strongest. On the other hand, we haven’t heard much from the RNG lineup, but just by looking at the way they are playing, they seem pretty determined on how the game should be played right now.
I think that T1 has the upper hand in the jungle and bot lane department, but the rest of RNG is looking stronger than their counterparts in my opinion, with the exception of the mid lane where both are looking really strong. Fun fact: Xiaohu and Faker have played the exact same champions except for one, which is Sylas for Faker and Gwenn for Xiaohu.
Royal Never Give Up has shown a more decisive playstyle and I think that the only reason their stats don’t look way better is that they had to play against PSG Talon, which is in my opinion the best wildcard team in the tournament. I think that Royal Never Give Up will secure the first encounter of this matchup and keep their win streak going until they meet again and T1 might have a chance to bounce back.
PICK: Royal Never Give Up to win at +136
PICK: Total Towers Destroyed Over 12.5 at -137
