Photo Credit: Evensi
After the past week of exciting games and brawls in the group stages, the knockout stages for MSI will start this weekend. Four of the six teams from the group stages remain to claim the title of MSI champions and the coveted title of best region until Worlds. The top seed expectedly is SK Telecom T1 holding an 8-2 record in the group stages. Their top spot was in no danger throughout the group stages despite their two losses. However, the rest of the teams have seen that although the Koreans are fearsome opponents, they can be beaten.
Although SKT were the clear favorites to take the top seed, second place was a bit harder to predict. In the end, the Chinese team, World Elite, took a surprisingly convincing 2nd seed with a 7-3 record. They can even boast about being one of two teams that took a game off the titans of SKT in a surprisingly one sided victory. A lot of their success and failures came from the top lane in 957. In general he plays more damage heavy top laners, many that are comfort picks for himself rather than meta picks.
Third place went to G2 Esports who had a 4-6 record in the group stage. Both Flash Wolves and Team Solomid had the same record, but G2 had a 2-0 record against Flash Wolves and a 1-1 record against TSM resulting in them moving on. The Europeans’ biggest criticism comes in the jungle where Trick has some of the worse stats of any jungler at MSI. If the team wants to win during the knockout stages, he will have to step up for his team.
Finally, the fourth seed was decided via a tie breaker between Flash Wolves and Team Solomid. Flash Wolves came in to the tournament as the team that would be able to challenge SKT and they showed it by taking a game off of the Koreans. However, their performance in general was quite underwhelming. TSM were able to take a game off of every team other than SKT during the group stages. During the tie breaker, things quickly spiraled out of control for TSM as Flash Wolves steamrolled ahead to a decisive victory and claiming the final spot in the knockout stages.
The knockouts will begin on Friday, May 19th and continue till Sunday, May 21st. SKT will take on the Flash Wolves while World Elite will play against G2 to determine who moves on to the finals.