Photo Credit: Riot Games
MSI 2018 officially started yesterday, Thursday, May 3, with the Play In Groups. Previously, these teams would have participated in the Wildcard matches, but with the skill of all these regions rising as a whole, the Play In Stage was created to determine the best of these teams.
Day 1
The first day consisted of matches between the teams of Group A, Gambit Esports, Kaos Latin Gamers, Rainbow7, and Ascension Gaming. Gambit Esports holds many familiar names previously in the EU LCS such as the legendary jungler, Diamondprox, ex-Moscow 5 members, PvPStejos and Edward. Kaos Latin Gamers hail from Latin America South while Rainbow7 are their Northern neighbors in the Latin America North league. Ascension Gaming are a combination of the old Bangkok Titans team who made an appearance in Worlds 2015 along with several new players. The veterans came out on top on the first day with Gambit Esports taking a flawless 3-0 lead, defeating the other three teams. Kaos Latin Gamers came in a close second, dropping only their match against Gambit. Rainbow7 took third with one win and Ascension Gaming stand in fourth place.
Day 2
The matches played on the second day are being played between the teams in the second group, BAUSuperMassive Esports, Dire Wolves, KaBuM! Esports, and PENTAGRAM. The heaviest hitter comes in SuperMassive, who have seen multiple appearances in previous Worlds and MSI tournaments. They’ve added on two big name Koreans in GBM and Snowflower, giving them one of the most dominant teams in their region. Dire Wolves hail from Oceania and have also seen some international competition. KaBuM! come from Brazil while PENTAGRAM hail from Japan where they were previously called Rampage.