MSI 2024 - GEN.G Wins It All

MSI 2024 Bracket Stage Overview

The Bracket Stage of the tournament started May 7th a short two weeks ago, and in the time between then and our grand finals yesterday, seven of eight prestigious teams were knocked out one by one. The Bracket Stage held a double elimination format with each team playing at least two best-of-five series, each series being played out over the course of one day.

Image sourced from LoL Esports on X.

Round 1 Recap

It was during Round 1 that the first two teams were eliminated from the competition - LEC's second seed Fnatic, and the PCS champions, PSG Talon. Perhaps that isn't too surprising considering that these were two of the four teams that had to go through Play-Ins to qualify for the Bracket Stage to begin with. So, what exactly happened?

In PSG Talon's case, their Round 1 match-up was versus BLG -  China's first seed. BLG have been a terrifying presence on the global esports stage since their first MSI appearance just last year. They ended in second place, then made top 4 at Worlds in the same year. Since then, they've signed knight, formerly of JD Gaming, who has won MSI last year. All this to say, BLG was bound to be a difficult opponent for the PCS representatives. And yet, PSG Talon surprised everyone by going toe to toe with the LPL behemoths in the first round of MSI. It was a sort of ping pong match between the two teams as BLG was able to stomp PSG Talon in the games that they won, but PSG would respond with a victory of their own

PSG were able to bring BLG to silver scrapes, but unfortunately, BLG was able to close out the fifth game in just under 24 minutes, with impressive individual performances across the board. PSG was thus relegated to the lower bracket, where they faced yet another monstrous opponent - LEC's first seed, G2 Esports. In this best-of-five, PSG Talon were unable to take a single game off G2. And with that, the PCS champions were unceremoniously eliminated from MSI title contention.

Image sourced from LoL Esports on X.

Fnatic had a different story, but it started off the same - an extremely unlucky draw that put them up against the top seed of a major region, LCK's Gen.G, who, as we know, went on to conquer the entire tournament. Unlike PSG Talon, Fnatic did not put up as much of a fight, though arguably each game had some nuggets of potential and promise. Still, the series ended in a lop-sided 0-3 score for Fnatic, and they were shunted into the lower bracket to face Team Liquid.

While perhaps only diehard fans expected Fnatic to have a good chance versus Gen.G, most spectators probably earnestly expected that the match-up against TL would be Fnatic-favoured. After all, while neither EU nor NA have had much success internationally, Europe has always been stronger as a region overall, and the Fnatic lineup has been showing promise, ending 2nd overall in the LEC Spring Split, and having a few close games versus the LCK titans of Gen.G. TL on the other hand had lost three one-sided matches to the second seed of the LPL.

What actually happened was a fairly one-sided four-match series and a win for the LCS. Fnatic pushed back against them in Game 2, defeating TL in just 26 minutes with exemplary performances from Humanoid and Noah. In the other games, Noah failed to get any sort of leg-up against TL's Yeon. While Humanoid played very well across all of the games, TL was simply the better team that day, and they proceeded to Round 2.

Image sourced from LoL Esports on X.

Round 2 Recap

TL’s celebrations were cut short when they had to face T1 next. After fighting to make it out of Play-Ins, then defeating LEC’s top seed G2 Esports, T1 was shot down into the lower bracket when they lost against BLG in the upper bracket. Between that mostly one-sided series and the very even series against G2, there were some LCS fans who thought TL might have a shot of winning. Meanwhile, after knocking out PSG Talon, G2 were set to face off against the LPL second seed, Top Esports, for a chance to either take revenge against T1 for putting them in the lower bracket, or avenge Fnatic by defeating TL. Both were strong motivators to be sure.

Image sourced from LoL Esports on X.

There were those who expected G2 to win - after all, their series against T1 was a close one - but probably nobody expected the slaughter than ensued. G2 Esports not only defeated the LPL representatives, but they went 3-0, with none of the games even reaching the 30 minute mark. This was the first time that G2 was able to defeat an LPL team in a best-of-five since 2018, and they sure did it with style.

Image sourced from LoL Esports on X.

Meanwhile, T1 were 2-0 in their series against Team Liquid, with eyes on G2. The second game was a very close one, at 43 minutes long, and it ended in defeat for TL only when T1 was able to secure the Elder Dragon and ace TL in the fight that followed. Team Liquid was able to get one victory in the game that followed, but, unfortunately, they fell in Game 4. Game 4 was unlike any other in the series, and was the cleanest and most surgical of games we'd seen from T1 this MSI.

Image sourced from LoL Esports on X.

Round 3 & 4 Recap

We were down to the top 4 of the tournament, and a match-up between the champions of the LEC and LCK's second seed, 2023 Worlds Champions, T1. What could fans have expected? T1 defeated G2 in Round 1 only a week ago, yet it was a close series, and in the matches since, G2 was able to go 6-0 versus PSG Talon and Top Esports. T1 had lost to BLG, dropped a game to TL, and had a difficult time defeating G2 in Round 1 as well.

With all those elements in play, I'm sure fans all around expected another close series. Unfortunately, that series didn't happen. T1, mimicking their decisive fourth game against TL, were able to cleanly deconstruct G2 in the first match of the series, with Gumayusi on Kalista going legendary, and Zeus and Faker playing extremely well too. Game 2 showed more promise, with exemplary performances on Caps on Aurelion Sol and Hans Sama on his signature Draven pick. The game was close until a pivotal fight 30 minutes in when G2's entire lineup was overwhelmed by the damage and CC offered by K'Sante, Poppy, Azir, Varus and Alistar.

The final match showed similar promise, and even 30 minutes in the teams were dead even in gold. Moreover, G2 had managed to secure Chemtech Soul. It came down to a devastating team fight in the Baron pit where T1 was able to cleave G2's lineup with Taliyah's Weaver's Wall then close in on them and secure the ace.

Image sourced from LoL Esports on X.

With that win, T1 had only one team standing between them and the grand finals - BLG. BLG had just come off a four-game series against the top LCK seed, Gen.G, which they had lost. In spite of the loss, BLG showed no signs of weakness, and opened up the series against T1 with a decisive win. T1 answered with a win of their own in Game 2, but then were taken down in Game 3 in just 23 minutes by the LPL champions. Once again in a ping pong fashion T1 was able to take the next game and bring us to silver scrapes with everything on the line. Boldly, BLG drafted Camille in the top lane and let Bin lead the way to victory.

Image sourced from LoL Esports on X.

Gen.G Takes It All

It's funny that we hadn't really taken the time to even talk much about Gen.G up until this point. This is because Gen.G had cleanly gone through the tournament - qualifying to the Bracket Stage from the get-go by defeating T1 in the LCK finals, then winning all three of their best-of-fives to directly advance to the finals.

To get to this level of success, Gen.G had made three changes since last year. Kiin and Lehends came on as top and support from KT Rolster, while Dplus KIA’s legendary jungler, Canyon, was brought on as the new jungler. Chovy and Peyz remained, both exceptional at what they do and members of the organization for years now.

Last year, Gen.G had finished 4th at MSI losing 0-3 to BLG, and at Worlds 2023, their run was ended by BLG. Now, BLG stood in their way again. What a great script! Of course, Gen.G has already faced BLG just three days ago in Round 4 and they won 3-1. Now they just have to do it one more time.

Image sourced from LoL Esports on X.

Gen.G started the series off right, and within two games they were sitting on Match Point. Definitely not what you wanted as a BLG fan, but both games were actually deceptively close. The third game was another gruelling 40 minute game, but this time BLG was able to wrestle the win away from Gen.G and prolong the seriesl. The game came down to a mid lane fight that started with a pick from Lehends onto BLG ON. Lehends’ Crystal Arrow flew true, and allowed the Gen.G lineup to melt through the tanky Tahm Kench pick. Now 4v5, Gen.G seemed poised to take the fight and close the series out 3-0, when all of a sudden BLG turned, killing Kiin in just an instant before taking down Canyon and Chovy too. Eventually, BLG secured the ace and managed to keep their dream of securing the MSI title alive.

The next game was a close, 47-minute slog of a match. Even 30 minutes into the game the two teams were in an even state. The gold was nearly even, though Gen.G was ahead in kills. It was around this time that BLG had their first big break as Xun was able to hop into the back of the Baron pit and steal Nashor away from Gen.G. They then secured their third Dragon, putting both teams at Soul point. At 37, Gen.G started Baron again but were ambushed by BLG, who nearly aced the LCK champions and pushed out their base all the way to the Nexus turrets. The series could have gone to 5 games had knight been allowed to stay in the base for just a few more seconds, but Peyz respawned and was able to take him down.

From here, Gen.G miraciously got control of the game back. After catching out Bin and Xun, they secured both Infenral SOul and Baron Nashor. Qickly the game spiraled out of control for BLG who felt their only recourse was to try to backdoor and take down the bare Nexus, but their several attempts at that failed. Canyon and Peyz were able to push out the mid lane and take down BLG's base as Bin and knight for in the top side jungle trying to get into Gen.G's base and ultimately failing. And just like that, after four 40+ minute games, Gen.G had pulled through, and were crowned champions of MSI 2024!

Congratulations, Gen.G!

Image sourced from LoL Esports on X.