RESULTS: League of Legends MSI Play-In Stage Day One

The Mid-Season Invitational has kicked off, with the minor region teams battling through the Play-In Stage. The teams taking part on day one were Gambit Esports, Kaos Latin Gamers, Rainbow7, and Ascension Gaming. Here’s a brief breakdown of the games.

Gambit Esports – Kaos Latin Gamers

Gambit took an early lead in this match, and never let their foot off the pedal. There was the potential for KLG to make a comeback fairly early in the game, after winning a fairly important team fight that saws them push to take the first tower of the game, however GMB were quick to regain control of the match and ultimately ended the game with a combined K/D of 14/4 and a gold lead of 12.1k.

Rainbow7 – Ascension Gaming

A bit less one-sided than the previous match that ultimately saw Rainbow7 pull ahead by the skin of their teeth. Both teams remained fairly close for much of the game, until R7 managed to pull quite far ahead, amassing a 4.6k gold lead at 30 minutes that also saw them claiming the lion’s share of the neutral objectives. ASC did make quite a comeback however, reeling in the gold lead and establishing one of their own to pull ahead 3.3k gold at the 39 minute mark. The match wasn’t over at this point however, as R7 managed to climb back and ultimately win the final fight that allowed them to claim the game.

Gambit Esports – Ascension Gaming

After almost claiming the previous match, Ascension once again almost claimed victory here. Though GMB came out swinging, ASC did manage to keep the scores relatively close for much of the match, even taking the lead at brief point. It would not by until around the 32 minute mark that Gambit would finally launch their all-out assault, with AD Carry Stanislav "Lodik" Kornelyuk achieving a Quadra-kill to get his team back in the lead. Gambit would finally close out the game with a 7.4k gold lead at 37 minutes, though the scores were very close at 20/15 in Gambit’s favour.

Rainbow7 – Kaos Latin Gamers

A slow start to this match was exactly what the crowd needed, taking the opportunity to catch their breath as these two teams looked for advantage over the other. Both teams were able to keep each other in check for most of this game, though KLG were ultimately able to pull ahead after a succession of team fights. KLG picked up their first win of the tournament with a gold lead of 11.5k at 31 minutes.

Kaos Latin Gamers – Ascension Gaming

An excellent early game from KLG allowed them to gain and keep the gold lead for most of this match. Starting with a massive team fight in the bot lane that put them ahead, KLG continued to put pressure on the map, securing as many neutral objectives as they could while also trying their best to keep ASC from gaining on them. Despite the best efforts from ASC to gain a lead, KLG had the match on lock, ending the game in just 27 minutes with a gold lead of 13.3k and a K/D of 23/7.

Rainbow7 – Gambit Esports

The final match of the day was another blow-out victory for Gambit Esports. R7 did manage to put together a fairly excellent mid-game performance, though it was too little too late as GMB once again ran away with the lead. By the end of the match, Gambit had accumulated a lead of 10.7k and a K/D of 16/9 in a match that only lasted 36 minutes.

For more on when the action will pick up again, check out the Official Schedule page, here, and for more on the teams competing in the Play-In stage, check out our breakdown, here.