G2 Esports Starts Out MSI 2023 on the Right Foot Utilizing an Off-Meta Duo

Despite a close call in the first game, the former MSI champions prevail in their first series.

Ever since KaBuM’s victory over Alliance at Worlds 2014, EU vs Brazil has been a heated affair. With the rising popularity of LOUD as an organization, the expectations from the CBLOL fans also started to rise in the last year or so. Still, coming into the first day of MSI 2023, the expected result was a G2 Esports victory.

The eventual results reflected this reality, but the games themselves were as competitive as they could’ve been with LOUD putting up a hell of a fight. The CBLOL representatives match the early aggression from G2 pretty well and even found massive leads. Game 1 especially looked like it would be a victory for them, but some crucial mistakes gave G2 a way back into the game and the series, leading to a loss for LOUD in the end. The star of the show for G2 was Yike on his international debut. The rookie jungler finished the series with a jaw-dropping 18/2/22 KDA.

What stood out in the series was the Nidalee/Nautilus duo from G2. Nidalee hasn't seen too much pro play this year yet and Nautilus outside of support was a relic of the past before today. But both these picks were played a lot by Yike and Caps in solo queue ahead of the MSI, and the success they showed today on the champions might shake up the tournament mata going forward.

Yeah this is a draft alright pic.twitter.com/w8Jy1xqqhC

— G2 League of Legends (@G2League) May 2, 2023

G2 Esports vs LOUD Game 1

Known for their creative drafting, G2 pulled out their pocket picks straight out of the gate with the Nidalee/Nautilus jungle-mid duo. The game itself had a chaotic start from level one with LOUD jungler Croc starting the game without buying items and falling behind early as a result.

But he bounced back really well moving around the map along with his mid laner. The CBLOL reps were looking for fights all around the map and G2 was happy to oblige. Despite losing some of the early fights, LOUD started winning once their five-plate and first-turret Aphelios joined in the part. They found a tier two mid lane turret and a 5k gold lead at 18 minutes.

Even from behind significantly, G2 found great engages during the mid game and Yike was massive on his international debut as he managed to pilot Nidalee to near perfection. Broken Blade’s Darius also became very hard to deal with. With no Dragon Soul to fall back on and one too many missteps for LOUD meant G2 Esports snowballed their mid game into a victory.

JUST TOPFATHER THINGS pic.twitter.com/9hxLVEpVEo

— G2 League of Legends (@G2League) May 2, 2023

G2 Esports vs LOUD Game 2

After Yike’s excellent Nidalee in Game 1, G2 Esports decided to run back the same mid-jungle duo for the second game. He once again started with an early invade and got the first blood for his team with help from Mikyx.

Just like the first game, LOUD was happy to take early fights but they couldn’t get too many kills back this time around. They also lost a lot of objectives around the map. At 16 minutes G2 had already broken five turrets and established over 10k gold lead, LOUD’s only answer being a single Mountain Drake. From that point on there was no stopping the G2 war machine for LOUD as they watched their base get destroyed in the 20-minute loss.

For more of our coverage during MSI 2023, follow us on ESTNN.