T1 vs G2 Esports Prediction: A crucial encounter for these teams

The seventh game day of the first international LoL tournament kicks off on Friday, May 20. The first match of the Rumble stage of the Mid-Season Invitational 2022 tournament will see the Koreans from T1 and the Europeans from G2 Esports.

The Mid-Season Invitational 2022 is a LAN tournament in the cybersports discipline of League of Legends, featuring the winners of the spring splits of 11 separate Riot leagues, with LCL not sending a representative this spring due to the cancellation of the LCL Spring Split. It was also announced on April 21 that the LPL representative would compete online from China due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and all teams will compete at 35ms to level the playing field. The tournament prize money is $250,000.

T1 is a Korean eSports team run by T1 Entertainment & Sports, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor, formed from SK Telecom T1 K and SK Telecom T1 S. They were previously known as SK Telecom T1.

SK Telecom T1 made their debut at IEM Cologne in 2012, securing the title for the Korean team by beating Fnatic 2-1. This team then split into SK Telecom T1 K and SK Telecom T1 S before the teams merged in 2015. This team looked like a major contender, winning the 2015 LCK Spring Split and then finishing 2nd at the 2015 MSI. After the 2015 LCK Summer Split Championship, SKT won their first World Championship, defeating their compatriots KOO Tigers 3-1 in the final. Since then, SK Telecom T1 has won 3 consecutive titles, the IEM Season X World Championship, LCK 2016 Spring Split, and MSI 2016, while KT Rolster broke their streak by beating them 3-2 in the LCK 2016 Summer semifinals. Despite this, the 2016 World Cup was won by SKT.

After the disappointing results, SK Telecom T1 rebuilt their team in 2019. This led to them winning several titles during the year. They won the 2019 LCK Spring Split and the 2019 LCK Summer Split but lost at international tournaments, finishing 3-4th. This led to another rebuild in 2020. They won the spring split of LCK 2020 but finished 5th in the summer and failed to qualify for the 2020 World Championships after losing in the regional final to Gen.G Esports.

After T1 finished 3-4th at the 2021 World Cup, the team again decided to reshuffle, after which they managed to become the first LCK team to never lose in the regular season, breaking their own LCK Summer 2015 record where they finished with 17/1.

With the attitude of an undefeated T1 team, they made it to the Mid-Season Invitational, which started with the easiest of three wins. The same trend continued on the final day of the group stage, where the Koreans picked up three more victories in a row, going 6-0 to the next stage. In their first match, T1 will face G2 Esports, who are determined to knock off the winning streak of the Korean squad, as well as continue their winning streak in their head-to-head encounters. T1 last defeated G2 Esports in 2017 in the MSI 2017 final but has never been able to beat their opponents since, losing 4 meetings in a row in 2019. After 3 years, the organizations will meet face to face again, but will the Koreans have enough game against the loaded Europeans for this duel?

For G2 Esports, the phoenix rebirth that the team needed for quite some time is now underway. Initially, things were pretty good. Since 2018, G2 started to not only make it to Worlds but to take the podium, getting closer and closer to the trophy. In 2019, the Europeans were stopped by FunPlus Phoenix in the final, who took the meeting 3-1 on the maps, and in 2018 and 2020, G2 Esports were ranked 3-4, but that all changed in the 2021 season. Perkz was replaced by Rekkles, who previously played for G2's direct LEC trophy rival Fnatic. Only this replacement was not good for the German organization. After finishing 3rd in the spring split and 4th in the summer split, G2 Esports failed to qualify for Worlds for the first time since 2016. After this embarrassing defeat, management decided to make global replacements, leaving only Jankos and caPs in the main roster.

G2 Esports signed Broken Blade, who previously played in LEC for Schalke 04 and in LCS for TSM, and two young players who came from EU Masters - Flakked and Targamas. With the renewed squad, G2 Esports started the 2022 summer split confidently, going 5-2 at the end of the third week. After finishing the season 11-7 and finishing fourth in the overall standings, G2 Esports advanced to the playoff stage. The playoffs did not start well for G2 Esports. Their 3-1 defeat by Fnatic at the start sent the Europeans to the bottom of the table, but the real magic began there. Team Vitality, Misfits Gaming, Fnatic, and Rogue lost 3-0. Thus, G2 Esports headed to MSI 2022. The Mid-Season Invitational itself started with good news for G2. There were only three teams in their group, so their chances of making it to the next stage were initially high, but they didn't need to. Having beaten the Americans, from Evil Geniuses and the Australians, from Order four times, G2 Esports qualified for the Rumble stage with a superb 8-0 scoreline.

Their first opponent will be the Koreans from T1, whom the G2s have been determined to defeat since the LEC 2022 playoff stage. This squad is really fired up for this clash, plus the replacement of three players did the organization well after a disappointing year.

I see a win for G2 Esports in this meeting, so I will take it for 5.35.

I'll also take Total Over 27.5 kills for 1.83.

And I'll also take the map duration over 29 minutes for 1.83.

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