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VCS marks return to international League of Legends

Saigon Buffalo have reached the second stage of MSI 2022, marking a strong return to international play for the... Benjamin Mock | 16. May 2022

Saigon Buffalo have reached the second stage of MSI 2022, marking a strong return to international play for the Vietnamese region after two years on the sidelines.

Vietnam has long been in the discussion about League of Legends’ fifth best region. However, the global health crisis has meant that the Vietnam Championship Series has merely been a spectator for the last three international events.

That was set to change with MSI 2022, hosted in the relatively local Busan, South Korea. After missing the Chinese-hosted Worlds in 2020, as well as the Icelandic-hosted MSI and Worlds in 2021, the VCS was ready to rejoin international opponents on the Rift.

But doubts swirled about its representative, Saigon Buffalo. Aside from the region’s international hiatus, Saigon Buffalo had not won the VCS. Saigon had gone 9-5 and played in the Spring Split Grand Final, but had lost convincingly to GAM Esports, whose Grand Final victory capped off a perfect 15-0 split. However, GAM were forgoing MSI to represent Vietnam in the Southeast Asian Games. As a result, the burden of representing Vietnam fell to Saigon.

Saigon Buffalo dispel their doubters

T1 were considered clear favourites of the Saigon’s group, so the all-important second qualification spot would likely come down to the Buffalo and the Japanese representative, DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM). DFM had accrued something of a legendary status amongst minor region teams, especially after their heroics at Worlds 2021 that saw them win a Play-In group that included Cloud9.

However, Saigon Buffalo would win both games against DFM and finish the group stage with a 4-2 record, only losing to T1. The team earned praises from T1 coach Choi “Polt” Seong-hun, who highlighted their bot lane duo of Nguyễn “Shogun” Văn Huy and Đinh “Taki” Anh Tài as being “very aggressive”. Shogun had the second-highest average kills among ADCs, and the fourth-highest average in the group stage. Taki had the third-highest average assists in the group stage.

Saigon Buffalo now progress to the Rumble Stage, a single round-robin where they will face T1, G2, Evil Geniuses, Royal Never Give Up, and PSG Talon. While VCS teams have consistently made the Rumble Stage, Saigon Buffalo will be looking to become the first Vietnamese team to progress to the four-team knockout stage.

Header: Riot Games