Despite high expectations, Team Liquid disappointed North American fans in their opening match of the Mid-Season Invitational. After losing the series 0-3 to Top Esports, the LCS’s record against LPL and LCK teams over the past two years reached a new low.
Can Bwipo and Impact 369 Match MSI?
Since the start of 2022, North American teams have competed in five international tournaments: three editions of MSI and two World Championships. In these five events, they currently have a 2-41 record against Chinese and Korean teams, with Liquid’s last 0-3 against TES, adding three losses to the tally.
The two victories came at MSI 2023 and MSI 2022. In the former, Golden Guardians faced Bilibili Gaming in the Group A qualifier and lost 1-2. In the 2022 edition of the tournament, Evil Geniuses managed to steal a single game from T1 in the Rumble Stage. Nevertheless, both series had little to no impact on the final standings of the NA teams. At MSI 2022, T1 lost the finals 3-2, while EG was crushed 3-0 in the semifinals. A year later, Golden Guardians went 1-6 in the Bracket Stage (the only win came against Cloud9) and headed home.
If there’s one thing that can be said about the record, it’s that the gap between the eastern and western teams is unfortunately widening. Before Liquid’s match against TES on May 7, pundits and fans from the League of Legends community were saying that the NA side could take this match home, as the Chinese representatives didn’t play well in the tournament. We now know how that turned out.
