The League of Legends 2021 Mid-Season Invitational is coming to its long-anticipated, explosive finale this weekend, as four of the best LoL teams get ready to cross swords for the gilded MSI trophy. Welcome to the Knockout — let’s see which two of the four remaining teams will be knocked out of the running this coming weekend.
League of Legends — The Rumble Recap
The 2021 MSI Rumble brought five days of edge-of-your-seat action, with DWG KIA pushing onwards into the Knockout as the top seed and Royal Never Give Up as the second seed. The battle for third and fourth seeds raged on between PSG Talon, MAD Lions and Cloud9. C9 had a rough start to the Rumble; unfortunately, they turned their losing streak around a little too late to qualify for the semi-finals and were eliminated from the competition along with Pentanet.gg, who didn’t net any pentas but managed to finish the stage with one win against NA’s favourites.
Rumble Stage Final Standings
DWG KIA (DAMWON Gaming) — 8W 2L
Royal Never Give Up — 7W 3L
PSG Talon — 6W 4L
MAD Lions — 5W 5L
Cloud9 — 3W 7L
Pentanet.gg — 1W 9L
Rumble Stage MVPs
Matyas “Carzzy” Orsag — MAD Lions’ ADC.
Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser — MAD Lions’ Support.
Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming — RNG’s Support.
Yan “Wei” Yang-Wei — RNG’s Jungler.
Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen — C9’s ADC.
League of Legends MSI Betting 2021
All MSI Knockout matches will be played Bo5 in a single-elimination bracket, with Viego and Gwen as the only disabled champions. The Knockout begins at 15:00 CEST on Friday, 21 May, and can be watched live at LoL Esports. The finals are anticipated to take place on Sunday, 23 May.
DWG KIA (DAMWON Gaming)
DK had an impressive showing of eight wins and two losses in the Rumble, which landed them safe and sound at the top of the standings. As the first-place team, DK are heading into the Knockout with a perk — they get to choose which of the bottom two teams they will face in the semi-finals. That’s a prize worth fighting for, since both of DK’s losses were to the competition’s second Knockout seed, Royal Never Give Up.
DK chose to try their luck against the kings of the jungle — Spain’s MAD Lions — on Saturday, 22 May. DAMWON are at 2/7 (1.28) to win the first game of the weekend and at 3/5 (1.60) to slay the second game’s first Drake.
Royal Never Give Up
After coming this far, Royal Never Give Up and nowhere near giving up their bid for the World Championship. The team cruised through the Rumble relatively comfortably, adding even more losses to PGG’s already less-than-ideal tally in the process. The shockwave hit RNG on the last two days of the Rumble, when C9 and MAD Lions joined the fray with defibrillators in their arsenal and rained on RNG’s parade, tainting their win streak with two losses.
Despite an unfortunate loss on the fifth day, DK are still RNG’s biggest threat in the competition — we wouldn’t be surprised to see these two teams in the finals on Sunday. Royal Never Give Up are heading in at 2/7 (1.28) to bring down PSG Talon in the first game of the Knockout, and at 7/20 (1.35) to slay the first Baron of the weekend.
PSG Talon
PSG Talon are sharpening their talons in preparation for the match against RNG on Friday, after a fantastic week in the Rumble. The SEA team showed the fans exactly what they are made of, wiping the likes of C9 out of the running. C9 found themselves outscaled and out of place in a decisive match against PSG Talon, getting first taste of PSG’s mechanically excellent execution — more of which we expect to see on Friday.
PSG Talon are measured at 9/8 (2.12) to slay the first Drake and at 6/7 (1.85) to draw out the first flash from RNG in the first game.
MAD Lions
In a surprising turn of events on the last day of the Rumble, MAD Lions stepped up when they most needed to. Spain’s lions traded in their aggressive early game for clinical precision, applying just the right amount of pressure on RNG to secure the win and push themselves through to the semi-finals, claiming the final Knockout spot. MAD Lions may be at the bottom of the standings, but they are certainly not to be trifled with — all throughout the series the team has demonstrated mastery of their limits, malleable strategy and impeccable vision control.
MAD Lions are at 11/5 (3.2) to destroy the first Inhibitor in the first game, and at evens to draw first blood.
League of Legends MSI Odds
Royal Never Give Up are at 1/8 (1.13) to rip out PSG’s talons Friday afternoon, whose fighting chance is measured at 22/5 (5.40).
DWG KIA stand at 1/9 (1.11) to wrap up the semi-finals with a victory against MAD Lions, who are at 49/10 (5.9) to show us their most thunderous roar.
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*Odds subject to change. Odds correct at time of publishing.