Royal Never Give Up has successfully defended its title at the international League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational tournament. In the final, the Chinese champion, who played from China, narrowly prevailed with a score of 3:2 against T1.

"I think it's the first time that RNG was able to win against T1 in a best-of-five," RNG midlaner Yuan-Hao "Xiaohu" Li said in an interview after the match, according to a translation. "It is a significant and historic moment. I'm very happy about that.»

MSI: The tactics make the difference

RNG and T1 were already considered the biggest favorites for the title before the tournament. Even in the group stage, the later finalists lost only a few matches, in the semifinals they finished the Western representatives G2 Esports and Evil Geniuses in a rush.

In the final, the two teams had to compete against each other, whereby the high level showed itself early on. The early course of the game was not marked by team battles, instead it was mainly tactical decisions about towers, dragons and barons that made the difference.

"Silver Scrapes": T1 forces fifth game

Despite a close series, the individual games were less close. Whoever secured an early lead also won the game in the end. Since RNG took the lead twice, but T1 managed to equalize each time, the decision had to be made in the fifth game.

There T1 made small mistakes at the beginning, which took advantage of RNG and quickly closed the bag in 25 minutes. Of all the star players and T1 veteran Sang-Hyeok "Faker" Lee, who had actually played a convincing series, did not cut a good figure.

For RNG, after 2018 and 2021, it is already the third triumph in the tournament played at the halfway point of the season. T1, on the other hand, missed the first major title since the MSI victory in 2017.