After 40 minutes of scratching through turrets with a lead borne from solo lane push advantages, Team SoloMid’s League of Legends‘ squad fumbled a Baron teamfight to turn the last 10 minutes into objective trades that gambled the entire match. Caster David “Riot Phreak” Turley would later refer to Team SoloMid’s 50 minute base race win over G2 Esports as “the strangest game” he had cast.





Taking down an opposing Nexus within one auto-attack only to lose might be rare, but many analysts anticipated back-and-forth games at this 2017 Mid Season Invitational. With the exception of Flash Wolves and Gigabyte Marines, none of the teams qualifying for the event came with a reputation for quick and decisive laning phases. Teams’ tendencies towards more conservative starts, smaller average gold leads at 15 and 20 minutes, but also imperfect lane assignments in the midgame make MSI throws and comebacks predictable.

The first round of MSI matches have played out somewhat awkwardly; however, comebacks and throws aren’t as common as they might seem. In a little more than two-thirds of the games, the team with the gold lead at 20 minutes has won the match, and only two games have had comebacks from a more than 2,000 gold deficit at 20 minutes.

While Flash Wolves, Gigabyte Marines, Team WE, and Team SoloMid have all lost games with gold leads at 20 minutes, fewer teams have made comebacks. Flash Wolves and G2 Esports have had two turnaround wins after deficits at 20 minutes, and SK Telecom T1 has managed one rebound with a Baron steal after a small 1,600 gold deficit at 20 minutes. Flash Wolves’ win over GAM resulted after a 5,800 gold deficit at 20 minutes, and G2’s first win over Flash Wolves came after they fell behind 2,800 gold.

The volatile first round robin ended with every team except SKT finishing with a 2-3 win-loss record. The slightest advantage or disadvantage could now make the difference between qualifying for the bracket stage or falling out of the tournament. Understanding where early game deficits arise and how Flash Wolves and G2 made their comebacks might shed some light on how the final days of MSI’s Group Stage could shake out.

Slow jungle choke

Nearly every team entering MSI’s main stage received domestic praise for their mid and jungle duo. One might imagine a dominating 2v2 force that crushes the opposition in skirmishes and snowballs the game, but for teams like SKT, Team WE, G2 Esports, and TSM, a strong mid and jungle duo means something different. Each mid laner has a reputation for pushing out the lane and allowing his jungler to invade or take control in a side lane.

In terms of the jungler’s actual mid lane impact, TSM’s Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen takes the most active role. Even then he mostly uses Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg’s push priority to invade the enemy’s blue buff or exert gank pressure on the top lane. As a result, mid and jungle control becomes a much slower process.

These mid laners rely on strong 1v1 matchups or threat of a strong 2v2 matchup with their jungler to get push priority. This means, for each of these teams, holding mid for last pick to get a counter isn’t uncommon. A mid laner keeps the wave pushed to let his jungler invade, lay down wards, and make follow up plays later.

In this way, one establishes a difference between a poor early game and a slow early game. For example, Team WE was characterized by the desk as a team that “rests on their laurels and gives up the early game,” but they gain many advantages by having Su “xiye” Hanwei and a side lane push out. Xiang “Condi” Renjie can then invade and acquire a strong individual lead, becoming much more oppressive in teamfights or mid game skirmishes.

Team WE’s playstyle gives them control of the early game slowly, reflected in the fact that they have averaged the second highest 20 minute gold lead of the tournament at 1,090. But they have a simple technique. With variations, this kind of mid push and jungle control strategy is a basic staple of almost every team at the tournament.

SKT, for example, use side lanes more often to influence the mid lane push. For example, when they draft an assassin mid laner, they might want to pick up a more supportive top laner who can Teleport for a mid play. That way, Lee “Faker” Sanghyeok may feel less threatened when he picks lower wave clear and poorer trade picks at early levels. He can keep pushing aggressively to facilitate Han “Peanut” Wangho to lay down vision. SKT have had a gold advantage at 20 minutes in every match but one at MSI, despite a reputation for weaker early game play.

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