After the recent match day, Group A of MSI 2021 has officially concluded. Setting aside the dominating 8-0 win streak of Royal Never Give Up, this group at least provided thrilling moments for fans, particularly in the race for the last spot in the Rumble Stage between Pentanet.GG (PGG) and Unicorns of Love (UoL).
RNG secured the top spot in the group, leaving the remaining ticket as a contest between PGG and UoL. Although considered the underdog, the representative from Oceania – PGG, surprisingly claimed a “capital” victory against UoL on the third match day.
On the fourth day, UoL shot themselves in the foot by losing to PGG for the second time, in a match where a win would have almost guaranteed their advancement. Both teams ended the group stage with a record of 2-6, forcing them to enter a tie-breaker.
PGG then pulled off a miracle by annihilating the representative from the Russian Federation – UoL, a team considered one of the two strongest representatives from Wild-card, thereby advancing confidently. This marks the first time in history that a representative from Oceania has passed the group stage of an international tournament.
Across social media, the international League of Legends community has sent congratulations to PGG. However, interspersed with the joy is the regret from some viewers, as Group A lacked the presence of the Vietnamese League of Legends representative – GAM Esports.
While it cannot be denied that PGG played exceptionally well in their five direct encounters against UoL, many believe that their achievement largely stemmed from luck, given that Group A lacked a representative from the independent region – VCS.
Although originating from a Wild-card server, VCS has made significant strides in skill over the past four years compared to other Wild-card regions. This is why Vietnamese LoL was separated into an independent region. And although they have been absent from the last two major tournaments, many fans still believe that the Vietnamese representative would have easily advanced in Group A if they had participated, meaning the “fairy tale” of Pentanet.GG might not have happened if GAM were present in Iceland.
“- I’m pretty sure GAM could easily defeat these two Wild-card teams to secure a top 2 finish.
– I think there’s no debate about this opinion. It’s truly unfortunate they couldn’t be here, I really wanted to see them play.
– Congratulations to OCE, but this situation makes the Rumble Stage (the 6-team group stage) quite dull, at least let’s not send Pentanet home with a 0-10 record. I wish GAM could participate.
– OCE is making its first appearance in the official MSI group stage (instead of the Play-in format => official group stage as in previous years, MSI 2021 is organized in a format of 3 groups, selecting 6 teams for the “Rumble Stage”, thus the Rumble Stage is considered similar to the official group stage).
Of course, this mainly happened because the (Vietnamese) representative is not here, but it is still a remarkable achievement given that OPL (the highest-level LoL tournament in the OCE region) has been dissolved and all their best players have moved to North America.
– With their tournament being stunted every year and VCS unable to participate, with Pentanet having secured a victory over Unicorns of Love (the win leading to the tie-break), while RNG started subbing in reserves, it’s clear this is the only opportunity for OCE to surpass a group stage at the international arena.
– How did RNG end up in such an easy group?
– Because Vietnam is not participating, and UoL is weaker than expected.”
However, luck is also an indispensable part of esports, and what makes Pentanet.GG deserving of this achievement is their ability to seize opportunities and create history for themselves.