In the Eight-year run of MSI North America has only made it to the playoff stages of the tournament three times including this year. In the previous two times, NA has made the finals both times giving them a 100% semifinal success rate the best in MSI history. This fantastic stat looks good but this year and 2019 have a vast amount of similarities that will totally guarantee an EG finals run for MSI 2022.
2019 vs 2022
The last year that NA made it out of groups was at MSI 2019 and lead to the first international tournament won by a western team with G2 beating Team Liquid in an all-western final. Looking at these tournaments they are eerily similar almost guaranteeing another all-western final.
Three teams are the same teams present at the 2019 tournament that being T1 formerly SKT from the LCK, G2 from the LEC, and Saigon Buffalo formerly the Phong Vu Buffalo out of Vietnam.
At the end of the main stage/rumble stage, four of the six regions finished with identical records: the LCK at 7-3, the LEC at 5-5, the LMS/PCS at 3-7, and the VN at 2-8. The first and last games of the main stage were identical with T1 losing to G2 to start the main stage and T1 defeating the LPL to end the stage. In both tournaments, T1 would struggle at the beginning of the stage but finish relatively strong winning at least their last three games.
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)
The biggest similarity comes in the matchups that are set up in the playoff stage. The two matchups in both tournaments were LCS vs LPL and T1 vs G2.
T1 vs G2
The elephant in the room is the huge matchup of Caps vs Faker which is the only remaining matchup from 2019. These two have been the faces of their teams for a number of years with Faker hoping to get revenge on Caps for their last two series losses against G2. Outside of this T1 heavily relies on their jungle to put in huge performances as both Clid in 2019 and Oner in 2022 were the best performers for their teams. G2 also comes into the playoffs losing games to Buffalo being the only major region to do so in both tournaments.
Berlin, Germany – April 9: — during the 2022 League of Legends European Championship Series Spring Semifinals at the LEC Studio (Photo by Michal Konkol/Riot Games)
LCS vs LPL
In both 2019 and 2022, the LPL representative finished the regular season in second place before winning their region with the number one seed failing to make the finals. The LPL is also the region containing the reigning champion and is seen as the best league in the world heading into the tournament. For the LCS the most important similarity between 2019 and 2022 comes in the top lane with Impact being the toplaner for both Team Liquid in 2019 and Evil Genius in 2022. Both NA teams would also only take one single game off of major regions in both tournaments.
Apr 13, 2019; St. Louis , MO, USA; Team Liquid member Eonyoung Jeong celebrates after defeating TSM in the fifth game to win the League of Legends Championship Series Spring Finals at Chaifetz Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
All of these similarities guarantee that EG will definitely defeat RNG tomorrow with G2 again beating T1 creating another all-western final and continuing NA’s dominance over the semifinals at MSI.