The match between LPL and LEC, as usual, had the representatives from the League of Legends of the populous country rated higher. After all, LPL has long been proud that they only lose to LCK in international matches. Moreover, in this instance, one side is the team that made Gen.G—the currently highly regarded team in the world—struggle to win 3-2. On the other hand, is the team that made too many mistakes for T1 to exploit, ultimately accepting defeat by the same score of 3-2. Not to mention, from 2018 until this confrontation, G2 had never won against an LPL team in any international tournament.
But then, the course of the match was completely contrary to many prior assessments as G2 faced no difficulties in finishing their BO5 series after just 3 games. In fact, TES’s resistance was negligible, with the second game concluding in just over 24 minutes of play. At the same time, TES also “helped” G2 break the curse of losing for over 6 years whenever this team faced LPL representatives.
However, there was something even more special that the community discovered: in the second game of the match, when JackeyLove used Draven and Hans sama used Kog’Maw, neither of these players activated their champion’s passive. This is perhaps one of the rarest occurrences in MSI history, especially when both Draven and Kog’Maw are core champions.
Draven’s passive, when activated, grants a huge amount of gold for the champion. However, throughout the match, JackeyLove went down 4 times and had no kills. Meanwhile, Kog’Maw, when killed, activates a passive that creates a copy chasing nearby enemies and exploding for magic damage. Yet, Hans sama was not killed even once in this match, despite Kog’Maw being a fragile champion and lacking mobility.
But it is from here that the circumstances and performances of the two players are most evident. JackeyLove had a forgettable day, while this was perhaps one of the most flawless BO5s in Hans sama’s career. The fate of TES and G2 is also completely opposite, and once again, the LPL representative has to leave the international tournament they participated in in a very humiliating manner.