Chaos ensued on the fourth day of the rumble stage at the 2022 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational and what looked like a predictable day of games turned out to be anything but.
For North American fans, the most significant result was obviously Evil Geniuses, led by mid laner and youngest player at the tournament jojopyun, taking down the greatest player of all time in Faker and his T1 squad in the second match of the day. Although jojopyun was enjoying a breakout tournament in his rookie season, AD carry Danny, who stood out in the team’s LCS title run, had struggled to find his footing—until today.
Jinx, one of Danny’s comfort picks, has fallen out of the meta since the domestic playoffs. But with nothing to lose against the heavily-favored T1, Danny and the rest of EG defaulted to what they knew and allowed their 18-year-old marksman to carry the NA representatives to a late-game comeback reminiscent of some of their domestic triumphs.
The most significant result for the standings, however, will likely end up being PSG Talon’s upset over Europe’s G2 Esports. Not only did it keep PSG from a dire position heading into the last day’s games, but it also was G2’s third loss in a row after winning their first four. What’s even scarier for G2 is they would now lose a head-to-head tiebreaker if they and PSG finish tied in the standings thanks to a similar result yesterday. G2 finished the day with a 4-4 record and sit just one game above PSG Talon.
Despite PSG crashing the party and riding a lot of momentum, the PCS champions shot themselves in the foot with a brutal loss to an already-eliminated Saigon Buffalo team who sat at 0-7 coming into the game. This result allowed Western teams’ fans to breathe a little easier before a final day of action tomorrow with still a lot to play for. RNG (7-1) are the only team to have clinched a spot in the knockout stage, and only two games separate T1 in second from PSG in fifth.
Tomorrow’s action kicks off at 1am CT. The second match of the day is the one to watch: If EG beat PSG at 2am CT, they will punch their ticket to the top four and give T1 a pass in as well.
