Photo Credit: Riot Games
This week brings an exciting round of games for League of Legends as the semifinals and finals for MSI 2018 kick off. The two semifinals matches will be played on Friday, May 18th and Saturday, May 19th culminating in the grand finals on Sunday, May 20th. The four teams that made it to the playoff stages are the LPL’s Royal Never Give Up, Europe’s Fnatic, LMS’s Flash Wolves, and LCK’s KING-ZONE DragonX.
RNG vs FNC
The first series has already been concluded with RNG facing Fnatic for the first grand finals spot. The first game started off with several brawls as a fight in the top side river led to both teams losing their jungler and top laner. A 2 vs 2 kill in the botlane for Fnatic allowed them to take a slight gold lead and the skirmishes kept continuing. The turning point occurred when a flank by RNG’s Letme allowed RNG to grab 3 kills for 1 and take the Baron. From there, they were able to quickly break through Fnatic’s defense. The second game started off like Game 1 with several small skirmishes until Fnatic started pulling ahead by taking the Rift Herald, two towers, and two kills. At one point, they were up by more than 5k gold, but a wipe by RNG allowed the Chinese to grab Baron. Fnatic responded with a team fight win of their own and both teams traded an inhibitor. However, RNG managed to secure the next Baron and from there, they were able to close out the game. Game 3 followed the same lines as Game 2 as Fnatic were able to build themselves a decent lead during the mid-game and take numerous objectives. The end came when RNG was able to win several major team fights and secure the Baron for themselves. A pentakill by Fnatic’s Rekkles offered some home, but RNG quickly quashed it, by closing out the game in a methodical fashion.
FW vs Kingzone
Flash Wolves kicked off the group stage with an impressive 6-0 run before losing some steam and ending up 7-3. Kingzone was expected to be on top with their first place standing from the strongest region, but surprisingly fell short at 6-4 and fourth place. This match will be played tomorrow to determine the last spot for the grand finals.