BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA – MAY 10: Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok of T1 gestures a thumbs up at the League of Legends – Mid-Season Invitational Groups Stage on May 10, 2022 in Busan, South Korea. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)
G2 tried their hand with an early Galio pick but Faker’s Tristana Mid Carries Game 1 of G2 vs T1 of 2022 MSI Semifinals.
G2 tried a new identity by early picking the Galio for Caps, trying to ignite their famous mid/jg duo of Caps/Jankos in order to abuse the T1 bot lane over and over again. It’s a solid strategy, given how aggressive Gumayusi and Keria tend to play in the laning phase but it all blew up in their face with Faker’s surprise Tristana mid pick.
The GOAT was the star of the show as he ran around last hitting plates off turrets and heads off G2 members as the European champs tried over and over to utilize their comp to dive bot lane. While they were somewhat successful in their execution, T1 managed to capitalize on their aggression at every turn, with Faker being spoon fed so much gold that he was almost doubling Caps’ gold nearing the mid game.
G2 might have expected Faker to play a facilitating champion and early picked the Galio to potentially flex it support and pair it up with Jankos’ famous Jarvan IV, but I still believe they could have pivoted in R5 with a Syndra or something. It will force Faker to spend some gold to buy a Hexdrinker, not to mention the cancels on Tristana’s jump and a more well-rounded teamfight.
G2’s wins off of T1, both this MSI and historically, has come from their late game comebacks owing to their teamfighting prowess. Trying out a dynamic early game comp like this isn’t a bad idea by any stretch of the imagination. But after this sort of beatdown, where they couldn’t pierce through T1’s early laning and skirmishing, I suspect a traditional teamfight comp with Caps manning a strong, independent carry will be the way forward in this series.