In the region’s first international tournament since 2019, Vietnam Championship Series reps Saigon Buffalo have not performed well. They were officially eliminated on Day 4 of the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational rumble stage after a loss to Royal Never Give Up — but they did decide to put on a show before heading out the door.
SGB actually pushed RNG to the brink, going up big in the game before a critical throw near the end sealed their MSI 2022 fate. However, being eliminated, SGB continued to show off cool picks and managed to play spoiler against PSG Talon. With the Shen support and Trundle jungle locked in, SGB decided they would not leave Busan, South Korea without a rumble stage win.
Their match against RNG was tragic. SGB looked invincible in teamfights throughout the game and, even when their nexus exploded, they still had a 25-19 kill lead. In fact, SGB had a gold lead heading into the very last fight.
Yet, with RNG having dragon soul and the Elder Dragon being up, SGB’s gold lead didn’t matter. They were forced to take a bad fight, which was actually close thanks to Bùi “Froggy” Văn Minh Hải popping off on Ahri. He had an end game stat line of 8/3/14 in the loss and Nguyễn “Shogun” Văn Huygoing went 5/2/11 on Xayah. Regardless, RNG escaped in the end with the win.
In SGB’s match against PSG, they were screaming their way out of the building. Shen support has been meta in past years, but according to Gol.gg, he has been far from it in 2022. Players picked Shen only eight times across all regions of pro play in the support position heading into this match at MSI 2022. However, this wasn’t actually Shen’s first match at MSI, as RNG brought it out against PSG in the group stage. SGB figured it worked then, so it would work again. And they were right.
Shen went 0/2/11 in SGB’s 28-minute victory of PSG, who defeated G2 earlier in the first match of the day. Froggy continued to have a fantastic day, this time going 2/1/8 on Ahri. The win means nothing to SGB in the standings, but the loss is devastating for PSG. They are now full game behind for the fourth and final spot in the MSI 2022 knockout stage. There are only two games left to play.
SGB still have chances to play spoiler in the final day of the MSI 2022 rumble stage. They go up against G2 and T1 on Tuesday.
Published: May 23, 2022 10:35 am