JDG and Cloud9 advance at MSI 2023

It seems that this edition of MSI is full of one-sided matches. So far, we’ve only seen one tough battle in the playoffs: Gen.G vs. T1. The score was 2-3 and T1 fully deserved to win. In the other seven matches that have been played so far, one of the sides won with a score of 3-0 (in five cases) or 3-1 (in two cases).

Today, Bilibili Gaming got beaten by JD Gaming (0-3) while Cloud9 had a relatively easy match against Golden Guardians (3-1).

Bilibili Gaming vs. JDG

The two strongest teams in LPL had a very nice rematch and JDG proved once again that they are the better side. Their drafts were highly creative and full of unique champions. Once again, JDG did not try to do the same thing twice. Instead, they relied on their versatility to surprise their opponents.

In game one, they picked Thresh, Kha’Zix, and Ornn, while in games two and three they experimented with Renekton and Syndra. All three games were really fun to watch and the last two of them were actually extremely challenging.

In game two, JDG had to come back from a 5500 gold deficit, while in game three they had to recover from a nearly 2000 gold deficit. For sure, Bilibili knew how to win the laning phase and it was only thanks to JDG’s vast experience that they were able to emerge victorious.

The duration of the three games was around one hour and 45 minutes in total. The second game was the longest and lasted nearly 40 minutes.

Thanks to this victory, JDG will play against T1 in the upper bracket Final. This match could have easily been a Worlds Grand Final. If everything goes according to what the statistics indicate, T1, either JDG or Gen.G will play in the Grand Final of MSI 2023. T1 will almost certainly qualify for it via the upper bracket route.

Cloud9 vs. Golden Guardians

C9 had a relatively easy match against GG and won with a score of 3-1. This was partly expected because the skill difference between the two teams is considerable. Game one was short (23 minutes), as well as game four. The other two games were very intense and lasted between 30 and 35 minutes.

In the end, C9 succeeded with their standard drafts and only failed in game three, partly because they picked an ineffective combination of champions.

Header: Riot Games