The rumble stage was kicked off yesterday by Royal Never Give Up and DWG KIA, two favorites to win the 2021 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational. RNG defeated the LCK representative in a fast-paced game, preserving their perfect record (9-0) at the tournament.

Despite the fact that the game featured two teams who are excellent examples of their respective regions' playstyles, today's match was more similar to the LPL meta. Despite a good start, DWG's attempt to beat RNG at their own game failed.

Both teams went with a highly damage-oriented lineup. RNG's top laner Xiaohu went for a strong AP build with Everfrost on Gragas, while DWG chose Lucian for ShowMaker in the mid lane.

DWG jumped out to an early lead in this competition. In every lane, the Korean team quickly gained an advantage over the LPL players, while Canyon displayed excellent pathing on Udyr.

On Tristana and Sett, Ghost and BeryL won two-vs-two battles in the bot lane without the assistance of their allies. ShowMaker, on the other hand, was free farming in the mid lane to get his core products quickly.

RNG stayed centered despite falling behind in the first ten minutes of the game. They played reactively, which isn't their normal style, and simply punished DWG top laner Khan's violent engages on Sion, rather than initiating fights themselves.

RNG was able to rejoin the game as a result of this. The Chinese team began steamrolling their way to victory as soon as they won the upper hand. Xiaohu's Everfrost build was good in catching DWG players in every teamfight and skirmish around neutral objectives, while Cryin's Shockwaves locked down DWG's carries (R).

RNG eventually found an opening to rush down the Baron, allowing them to seize hold of DWG's foundation. Despite several flanking attempts by DWG's carries, they lacked the requisite damage and tankiness to prevent RNG from advancing towards their Nexus.

DWG KIA vs. RNG rosters:

DWG KIA roster:

• Top - Kim “Khan” Dong-ha
• Jungle - Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu
• Mid - Heo “ShowMaker” Su
• Bot - Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun

• Support - Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee 

RNG roster:

• Top - Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao

• Jungle - Yan “Wei” Yang-Wei

• Mid - Yuan “Cryin” Cheng-Wei

• Bot - Chen “GALA” Wei

• Support - Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming 

 That’s all for the highlights for this week update on the MSI 2021 rumble stage. Stay tuned for more updates on MSI 2021!