RNG outpace Evil Geniuses to open up rumble stage run, remain undefeated at MSI 2022

Royal Never Give Up’s perfect run at the 2022 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational continued today when the team won their opening game of the rumble stage over Evil Geniuses. RNG kept a steady gold lead over Evil Geniuses throughout every stage of today’s contest before exploding in the late game and punishing EG through far more consistent teamfighting and objective control. The methodical 34-minute victory was one of RNG’s most complete and convincing wins of MSI thus far. 

Dating back to last year, RNG had won nine of their last 10 matches at MSI coming into today’s game. Last week, they went undefeated during the group stage of the tournament, and with this victory over EG, they have now won seven consecutive games to open their MSI title defense run. 

Related: MSI 2022: Rumble stage scores, standings, and results

An early-game skirmish propelled RNG to a gold lead of nearly 5,000 at the 15-minute mark against EG, while gold advantages across the entirety of Summoner’s Rift in the early game helped the team carry their momentum into the final stages of the game. By the time RNG took down EG’s Nexus, they had doubled up the LCS champs’ total kills, winning the game by a kill score of 22 to 11. Eight of those kills belonged to RNG’s top laner Bin, who finished the game with a scoreline of 8/4/10 and a kill participation mark of 81 percent on his signature Gangplank pick. 

As for EG, who went 4-4 in the group stage of MSI, they’ll return to the stage later today against Saigon Buffalo, the second seed out of the VCS. EG have yet to lose a game to a minor region team at MSI but have also failed to defeat a major region team. 

RNG will play their second game of the rumble stage later today against G2 Esports, who are riding a 21-game winning streak after defeating T1—and breaking their 26-match winning streak—earlier today.