G2 Esports vs Invictus Gaming

What an insane World Championship this has been. The sheer idea that three Western teams and a single Chinese representative would be gracing the Worlds stage at the very end as the Top 4 teams in the world seems like the strangest of timelines, and yet it’s actually happening. If you’re a Western fan of League of Legends, you have three more reasons to watch the next three Best of 5 matches spread across two upcoming weekends.

For our first semi final clash, we have an incredibly exciting match between the EU LCS third seed in G2 Esports, and the second seed from LPL - Invictus Gaming.

Both teams reached this point in the tournament through an unexpected turn of events. Invictus Gaming was always predicted as a Top 5 team at Worlds but they weren’t exactly predicted to go past KT Rolster. In fact, after witnessing them fall pray to Fnatic in Group D, most people didn’t really give them a chance of reaching the Top 4 either.

But thanks to some incredible individual play, as well as insane team fighting (and a better read on the meta), they were able to best KT Rolster in what was one of the most memorable Best of 5 matches in the entire year.

G2 Esports on the other hand barely made it into the Group Stage of the tournament. Anyone giving them a chance against Royal Never Give Up was an overly optimistic Western fan - and yet they actually did manage to beat the team many thought would lift the Worlds trophy - the only trophy they’re missing since they pretty much wrecked house in every tournament that they’ve attended.

Out of the two semi final matches, this one is the hardest to predict even though it might not seem like it at first glance. There are so many variables and possible outcomes that it’s impossible to predict anything with full confidence.

This is going to hinge around the mid lane match-up. We can also deduce a fair amount from both of these two teams’ quarter final matches. Perkz was up against Xiaohu - an experienced, seasoned veteran that’s incredibly dangerous. While he didn’t exactly play to the best of his ability he is still an insanely capable mid laner and Perkz completely wrecked him in almost every match-up. When Perkz comes to play, there aren’t a lot of mid laners in the world that can compete with him.

That said, Invictus Gaming has Rookie, arguably the best mid laner in the world. Rookie was voted the MVP of the LPL - and he wasn’t on the winning team. Let that sink in for a moment. Furthermore, he was up against Royal Never Give Up, a team that won the Mid-Season Invitational, Rift Rivals, Asian Games, and both LPL splits. The guy is just that good. Oh, and he also pretty much destroyed Caps in the 1v1 match-up in IG’s games against Fnatic.

How well will Perkz fare against him? It’s impossible to know right now, but he isn’t favored by any stretch of the imagination. If he receives priority in the pick and ban phase, he could get the favorable match-up and get the upper hand that way, but the most important thing is the fact that G2 kind of outmatch IG on an individual level.

Obviously both TheShy and Duke are insanely good players and they should get the benefit of the doubt over Wunder, but every other member - that being Ning in the jungle, JackeyLove as ADC and Baolan as support are outclassed by their counterparts.

Sure, JackeyLove has exceptional moments but he isn’t consistent, and his lows are way lower than Hjarnan’s. Speaking of G2’s AD carry, the fact that he was able to go blow-for-blow not just against the (predicted) best team in the world in RNGU but against the best AD carry to ever grace the Summoner’s Rift in Uzi.

He died just a handful of times in five extremely competitive games - against one of the best teams in the entire world, a team that won every single international tournament in 2018. That’s an astonishing feat no matter how you spin things. If he’s able to have a repeat performance against IG this weekend then G2 could potentially come ahead.

That basically goes for all of G2. If they play to their fullest potential, they arguably have more tools to win with. After all, they took down RNGU, and when they imposed their own playstyle they made it look easy. Baolan in particular was integral in Invictus Gaming’s success against KT Rolster because of his insane engages, mainly on Rakan. That said, both him and Ning made every possible mistake in the book in their deciding matches against Fnatic, and if they’re not playing as well as they did against KT, then IG’s road to the finals becomes that much harder.

They have pretty clear win conditions and tools that they have to utilize in order to realize them. If G2 draft well and prepare a strong strategy then they, by all means, have a chance to beat the LPL representative. That said, if they fumble, if they give the lead over at inopportune times and underestimate IG’s potential then they’re going to get steamrolled.

That’s precisely one of the reasons what makes this clash so darn exciting. What’ll happen this weekend is completely up in the air. We have more than enough information to go by and build out predictions on but these are basically uncharted territories. We’ve come to the point that no one expected. No one saw this coming, and the narrative will continue developing at its organic pace - with G2 or IG as the first finalist.

From a statistical standpoint, these two teams are neck and neck. While one might be better than the other in certain points, stats only tell a part of the picture. Royal Never Give Up were definitely better than G2 Esports in their head-to-head and yet they failed to realize their win conditions, they failed to impose their playstyle and in the end they left the World Championship early.

Again, there isn’t anything to really sway the match-up to either side. Both teams have very specific playstyles with G2 perhaps favoring the 1-3-1 split pushing strat a bit more - and that could potentially give them the edge when it matters the most. When KT executed a clean 1-3-1 in game four against IG, they didn’t even break a sweat - it was a “by the book” kind of win.

It’s hard giving the edge to anyone in particular, and that goes to show just how close this match will probably be in the end. It will be a game of nuances, a game of inches that has the potential to go the distance. We’re leaning more towards Invictus Gaming overall, but G2 have the tools to make this into an insanely competitive series and perhaps even upset - much like they did against Royal Never Give Up. That said, RNGU focused primarily on Uzi as he was their biggest catalyst - their solo laners didn’t do that well and in a top/mid lane focused meta that was arguably their biggest downfall.

Invictus Gaming on the other hand have some of (if not the) best solo laners in the entire tournament, so it’s hard giving G2 the benefit of the doubt. That said, the odds are heavily stacked against them, and they’ve already proven to have the mental fortitude, resilience, and fantastic prep necessary in order to upset so we’re going with the underdogs on this one.

If you’re not willing to risk anything, then going with IG makes more sense. If, however, you’re a believer in G2’s repeat performance, then you could potentially win a lot more. Either way, one thing is for sure - we are in for one insane Best of 5 series.