China takes down the king at MSI 2016
…Wow.
China’s Royal Never Give Up tore a hole in the supposed cloak of invincibility draped over the shoulders of the Korean kings SKTelecom T1.
If their result comes as a shock, then you're not the only one. Almost no one could have predicted that SKT would be 0-4 at 10 minutes into the game, or that "The Demon King" Faker would be 0/5/0 on Azir at 50. Though, low and behold, here we are.
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RNG put on a dominant show. Xiahou's LeBlanc picked up an early first blood and from there, China's top team abused their mid lane advantage. Follow up ganks by mlxg's Graves made Faker’s life miserable. Afterwards, it wasn’t hard for Xiahou to turn himself into a slippery LeBlanc wrecking ball.
"It's not like I had faith in him, it's just the only champion he plays well," RNG support Mata said about Xiaohu with a laugh. "This was the first time I've seen my jungler and mid laner win."
To SKT’s credit, they managed to hold on for a whole hour, even when they were 11k gold behind at one point. They took an inhibitor from RNG and we even got to see what happens when Baron buff meets five Dragons.
The atmosphere in the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center was palpable. No one dared even cheer, such were the nerves of the home crowd support.
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"All my teammates thought we had a good chance of winning a team fight," said Mata, whose focus was on finding the perfect initiation on Alistar.
Both teams had full item builds and open bases. In the end it was a fight outside the Dragon pit that decided it for RNG. On an even playing field they aced SKT and the arena erupted.
Did it mean more to Mata to beat a Korean team? "I play on a Chinese team now," he says, showing his regional pride. "I beat a Korean team, but it was more like they're the best team and we beat the best team. That's what meant a lot to me."
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China's RNG is now the only undefeated 4-0 team at MSI 2016. The power of the home crowd is strong, and after shaking the nerves of Day 1 and coming back with such a compelling performance on Day 2, they've put China one step closer to reclaiming the MSI trophy.
