The biggest surprise of this MSI? BLG triumphs over PSG, but with what difficulty

The main stage of the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational finally delivered a series with real substance. Bilibili Gaming's clash with PSG Talon was supposed to be a mere formality for the League of Legends Pro League champions. Meanwhile, the best formation from the Pacific Championship Series showed its fangs and provided the fans with a real spectacle, bringing the encounter down to a full BO5. If you would like to check the schedule for the remaining matches of the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational, go to the Esports Betting Bro website. Moreover, you may find comprehensive guides and expert reviews of cyber bookmakers so that you may pick a suitable place for wagering.

Bilibili Gaming 3:2 PSG Talon

The start of the next series of this year's MSI went as expected. PSG Talon had their moments - but they often seemed to be caused by mistakes made by Bilibili Gaming. In key skirmishes, on the other hand, Zhuo ‘knight’ Ding and Zhao ‘Elk’ Jia-Hao outshined the entire opposing team, allowing their formation to easily take over neutral objects and enemy structures. As the game progressed, Huang ‘Maple’ Yi-Tang and company had less and less to say. BLG's extermination of Nashor sealed the fate of this single-player installment, which ultimately lasted just over 25 minutes.

The surprises came in the second act of this showdown. Once again, it was the LPL champions who came into the game better prepared, continually getting rich on both sides of the map. PSG, however, despite a sizable gold deficit, did a lot of damage in teamfights, which resulted in a Baron for the Taiwanese and a significant reduction in the funds gap. By contrast, it was still difficult to say whether this would be enough to surprise the favourites. After a few minutes of downtime, however, another Purple Beast hit the account of Lu ‘Betty’ Yu-Hung's team for the second time. This one felt the wind in its sails and, with this reinforcement, attacked the Chinese base, levelling the series.

This victory gave the PCS representatives wings. They started the next game much more confidently, razing the opposing botlane to the ground. For the first 20 minutes, there was much to suggest a repeat of the shocking success. However, a fatal fightback taken in the lower jungle distanced the underdog formation from this goal, handing the baton back into BLG's hands and bringing the game to an imminent end. A game that started with an elimination balance of 7-1 in favour of PSG Talon, and ended.... 14-8 for Bilibili.

The fourth game of the series saw a bit of calm. Individual kills and possessions fell prey to both teams, but you couldn't tell that either team was coming out to a clear lead. Slightly more prosperous was the Knight's team, but Maple and his companions didn't seem to see it. The confidence with which they approached the skirmishes paid off — thanks to it, they once again took possession of the Nashor. And to everyone's surprise, they brought this game to a close, reducing the encounter with the Chinese giant to a ‘random BO1’.

And in the final scene... Well, there was no more room for surprises and delights there — except perhaps over BLG. The LPL triumphants finally showed what they were supposed to show from the very beginning, namely absolute domination. PSG's hopes lay in ruins with their base collapsing at the end of the fastest game of the match, and all that the PCS champions gained were two dismal kills.

What a match it was! In the fourth game of the first round of the main stage of the Mid-Season Invitational, representatives of G2 Esports and T1 clashed. The Koreans were certainly the favourites, but the European fans believed in the magic of the Samurai. And that magic took place, although the power seems to have run out in the final straight.

G2 Esports 2:3 T1

Already the start of the first game could have been a good harbinger for G2. After all, the League of Legends EMEA Championship champions started with some quick eliminations, which allowed them to get out to a small lead. Then, however, a break came and the Samurai seemed to fall out of rhythm when play resumed. T1 managed to fight back and even gain a lead. After that, Faker's team only fared better and took the first point of the series at MSI.

After such a clash, one could assume that G2 would not recover after missing such a chance. No kidding. Caps' team came back with redoubled strength and dealt with their rivals in fantastic style in game two, levelling the match. This, however, was not the end of the good news for European fans. Their representatives continued their great form in the third leg of the battle. G2 even ridiculed, among others, Faker himself, who finished this skirmish with 0/6/5 statistics.

G2 was thus just one step away from a sensation. However, the world champions, as befits champions, did not lay down their arms yet and showed up in the fourth game as expected before the match - a confident and controlled victory from start to finish. The fate of the match was therefore to be decided in the fifth battle. And this one started phenomenally for the Samurai. Once again, they grabbed a lot of valuable resources at the start, which helped them further. There were moments when we could realistically feel that the match was already in the Europeans' grasp.