LoL: MSI 2021 Group Stage – Day Five Recap (Group B)

Group B has officially wrapped up their MSI Group Stage. Who is moving on?

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After Group A wrapped up their set of games yesterday, it is now time for Group B to finalize their representatives in the Rumble Stage. MAD Lions are poised to eradicate the horrors of the 2020 World Championship Play-in. The LEC champs sit top of their group with a 3-0 record. On their heels is PSG.Talon, who has arguably looked stronger across the games, followed up by paiN Gaming and fastPay Wildcats.

MAD Lions vs FastPay Wildcats

The day kicked off with two teams at the opposite end of the group. MAD Lions came into this week with a 3-0 record. Meanwhile, fastPay Wildcats was facing an uphill battle, as the TCL side sat at a 0-3 record. It did not take long for First Blood to come through, with the Wildcats being able to set up a kill onto Kaiser in the bottom lane with the help of Ferret around the 4:30 mark. Elyoa was able to punish the flashless Urgot on the top side of the map to return the game to an even footing.

As the nine-minute mark approached, the MAD Lions were able to completely gain control of the game when Elyoya picked up a double kill onto Farfetch and Ferret. Around the 12 minute mark, a massive fight broke out around the dragon pit, and MAD was able to secure the drake but lost three members in the process, throwing away their gold lead.

Minutes later, MAD was able to blow open the game to a 3k gold lead after getting multiple picks and their third dragon of the game. Then, at the 20 minute mark, MAD Lions attempted to take the Baron. But their attempt was quickly shut down by the fastPay Wildcats, as they forced a fight and secured four kills. At 22 minutes, it was the Wildcats who were able to pick off two players to secure Baron for themselves. Wildcats showed great discipline down the stretch when MAD positioned in the river for a fight. Here, Farfetch was able to find a great engage on Humanoid that started the game-winning fight for the Wildcats. FastPay was able to pick off multiple members and instantly pushed down bot for the win.

Quick Stats:

• Time: 30:16
• Kills: 12-16
• Turrets:4-10
• Gold: 53.4k – 57.7k
• Dragons: 3-2
• Barons: 0-1

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PSG.Talon vs paiN Gaming

The game saw its first bit of action at the six-minute mark, when River made his way down into the bottom lane and helped set up a kill for Kaiwing to pick up onto Luci. The action did not stop, with Maple catching out Robo in between his tier one and tier two tower to give Zoe the advantage in this mid lane matchup. At the nine-minute mark, PNG was able to get a kill back for themselves onto Hanabi while also securing the Rift Herald. paiN Gaming was truly bringing the pain to PSG’s top side with another gank onto Hanabi and they were also able to secure the first tower of the game.

The game was much slower than the previous game earlier today, at the fifteen-minute mark the gold was even but PNG had a two dragon lead as well as a tower advantage in the top lane. PSG gained a huge fight victory for themselves after killing off three PNG players at the 18-minute mark.

Eventually, PNG was able to secure their third drake of the game. However., it was a disaster for PNG at the 24-minute mark as a Baron attempt was snuffed out by PSG. The consequence was that they gave over the Baron and their first drake of the game to PSG. At 31 minutes, PSG had gained control of the game, securing another dragon that PNG needed. Moments later, PSG won a team fight after starting Baron, turning onto paiN Gaming and securing multiple kills. Seeing the opportunity, PSG pushed down for the win to move to 3-1.

Quick Stats:

• Time: 31:57
• Kills: 17-3
• Turrets: 8-4
• Gold: 58k – 49.7k
• Dragons: 2-3
• Barons: 1-0

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fastPay Wildcats vs PSG.Talon

It was a nightmare start for the Wildcats, with Ferret getting caught at the two minute mark to give River and PSG first blood. PSG, by the ten-minute mark, was in control of the game. They were up just under 2k and had a drake advantage. PSG was playing a much slower game this time around, slowly stacking up drakes with an Ocean Dragon and Mountain Dragon picked up in the early game. In addition, Doggo was slowly becoming a monster through map control and was able to pick up a solo tower on the top lane. By 15 minutes, he already had two items in his inventory.

By the seventeen-minute mark, PSG was on Soul point as they picked up the Cloud Dragon. The game now became awkward for Wildcats to play as they had to either give up the Cloud Soul or answer the call every time a dragon was on the Rift. But, the Wildcats were able to get a pick onto Kaiwing as well as take down the tier one tower in the mid lane to buy some time. Then, at 22 minutes, PSG was able to turn around an engage from Farfetch. This allowed PSG to pick up the Cloud Soul for free going into the later stages of the game.

At 25 minutes, PSG was able to kill two members of Wildcats then secure the Baron. Now, they were in a solid position to end the game. But tt was a disaster for PSG at the 29th minute, as Ferret was able to steal the Elder Dragon from under their noses. IW was able to kill off three members of PSG with the buff but lost four in the process. It wasn’t enough though, because at 33 minutes, PSG found the perfect team fight, killing all five members and pushing down mid for the win.

Quick Stats:

• Time: 33:24
• Kills:  11-22
• Turrets: 4-8
• Gold: 54.9k – 63.2k
• Dragons: 0-4
• Barons: 0-1

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paiN Gaming vs MAD Lions

It was disaster yet again at level one with MAD Lions giving away first blood at 1:45. MAD was unable to position well enough, leaving CarioK to gain level two and use Morgana’s binding onto Kaiser for the First Blood. Another tragedy for the MAD Lions struck at the sixth-minute mark, this time in the top lane. Elyoya and Armut positioned themselves for a dive onto Robo’s Renekton. But Armut went too early, allowing Robo to Flash in for the kill.

Things went from bad to worse for Armut as CarioK came up to the top lane to catch him out after warding the river. At ten minutes, MAD was able to secure the first dragon of the game after Elyoya was able to pick off Luci. In return, PNG continued to bully Armut with the Rift Herald taking down the first tower. By the 16 minute mark, MAD was stabilizing slowly, with the LEC champs having a two-dragon lead. By the 20th minute, the saving grace for MAD was Elyoya who was 2/0/0 on Rumble.

A team fight at the 22nd minute broke MAD Lions way, as Humanoid got a shutdown on to Rob as well as CarioK. By this stage, MAD was in control with a 1k gold advantage as well as having more dragons than their opponents. A massive fight at 26 minutes was the straw that broke the camel’s back for paiN Gaming. At this point, MAD was able to pick up four kills as well as the Baron. Around the 30 minute mark, MAD Lions made their game-winning push, taking down multiple players as well as securing their place in the Rumble Stage.

Quick Stats:

• Time: 31:06
• Kills:  5-17
• Turrets: 3-10
• Gold: 48.8k-61.4k
• Dragons: 1-3
• Barons: 0-1

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paiN Gaming vs fastPay Wildcats

The fifth game of the day saw the two sides who have already been eliminated go head to head in their final game of the Group Stage. With nothing to lose, both teams put on a clown fiesta worthy of the name. Both top laners were trading punch for punch, ignoring the minions and going for a skill battle. Robo came out on top First Blooding StarScreen in the second minute of the game. IW was relentless in their aggression this game and in the fourth-minute Ferret was able to set up a dive onto Luci to give IW a 3-1 lead in kills. This was followed by a tragic follow-up dive onto brTT with the PNG bottom laner picking up a free double-kill.

The game did not slow down from here. Soon, a team fight at the seventh minute saw CarioK pick up two kills as well the first dragon of the game. At the tenth-minute mark, there were 16 kills spread out across the sides with Tinowns being the only player not to die. At that time PNG earned just under a 3k gold advantage as well as having a drake advantage over their opponents. Wildcats were able to find a solid team fight victory for themselves, handing Tinowns his first death as well as killing off brTT to bring the gold lead back to even.

At the 21st minute, Pain Gaming had raced to a three-dragon leave with the Infernal soul loading. At this time PNG also had a 1k gold lead and a 4-3 tower advantage. A minute later brTT and paiN Gaming won a huge team fight in the top lane with the Brazilian ADC picking up a triple kill and the Baron. The nail in the coffin for IW was at the 24th minute when the TCL side was Aced in the river. With the team fight victory, paiN Gaming was able to crack open the base. With PNG obtaining the Infernal Soul, the CBLoL side was able to push through for the victory, ending Group B with a 2-4 record.

Quick Stats:

• Time: 28:45
• Kills:  27-18
• Turrets: 11-3
• Gold: 59.9k-49.7k
• Dragons:4-0
• Barons: 1-0

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PSG.Talon vs MAD Lions

PSG takes on MAD Lions in the final game of Group B. And while seeding has no value in this match, regional and personal pride is on the line. While the early game did not live up to the previous game, it was PSG securing the first blood with a big team fight in the river. MAD Lions was able to pick up a kill in return onto Kaiwing before Maple outplayed Humanoid in the mid lane. In the ninth minute, MAD was able to pick up the first Infernal Dragon of the game.

In a surprising turn of events, Hanabi’s Sion was able to solo kill Armut’s Jayce. As a result, PSG had a 3-1 kill lead going towards the tenth-minute mark. At the tenth-minute mark, a team fight erupts in the bottom lane with both teams trading one-for-one. At this point in the game, PSG had the slightest of leads with a 300g lead but MAD had the one drake over their opponents. MAD Lions gained full control of the game at 17 minutes in, picking off River and Kaiwing.

The third drake went to the MAD Lions with a team fight in the nineteenth minute to see the LEC side mode to soul point with a 1k gold advantage on top of that. In the 28th minute, MAD Lions were able to run the Baron with Carzzy getting himself a triple kill. Now, MAD was in a prime position to close out this game. A few minutes later MAD Lions were able to push into the PSG base and secure the victory. They’ll be going into the Rumble Stage with a 5-1 record.

Quick Stats:

• Time:33:57
• Kills: 6-18
• Turrets: 2-11
• Gold: 52.4k-64.8k
• Dragons: 1-4
• Barons: 0-1

Source: https://estnn.com/lol-msi-2021-group-stage-day-five-recap-group-b/