RESULTS: Team Liquid Claim the First Win for NA at the Mid-Season Invitational

Despite getting off to a rocky start, Team Liquid have finally put North America on the board, defeating China’s Royal Never Give Up to claim their first victory at MSI. Here’s a brief breakdown of the match.

TL got off to an excellent start, claiming first blood in the bot lane as Yiliang "Peter" "Doublelift" Peng and Kim "Olleh" Joo-sung stepped up their early game. TL continued to apply pressure across the map, with Jake "Xmithie" Puchero securing the first Dragon of the match before another skirmish broke out, allowing TL to claim more kills. TL continued to apply pressure across the map, taking down the first tower and more before RNG finally claimed an objective of their own.

Liquid continued to dominate the map, picking up their second Dragon to get even more of a boost, before continuing to target towers around the map. RNG were eventually able to score their first kill and pick up a Dragon of their own, but it was never free as TL continued to punish RNG around the map. A major team fight broke out around Baron that saw TL secure the buff and two kills, but lose three players in reply. Keeping the pressure on however, TL again secured a Dragon before another team fight broke out, this time going in TL’s favour.

As the match went on, it became increasingly obvious that TL had the better read on the map, taking down more objectives before again looking to secure the Baron. With the buff secured, TL were able to break open the base of RNG and start taking down their defences. Despite the best efforts of the Chinese Champions, Team Liquid proved too strong in the end, claiming victory in 37 minutes with a gold lead of 13.5k.

While this hasn’t been the easiest tournament for Team Liquid, at this point they at least won’t be going home without a victory, and can still force a tie-breaker if the rest of their matches go well. For more action from MSI, check out the recap from Day 2, here, and for more on when the teams will play again, check out the Official Schedule, here.