G2’s BrokenBlade picks his namesake, Riven, at MSI 2022

After coming off their first loss at the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational, Sergen “BrokenBlade” Çelik and G2 Esports made headlines once again in their very next match. Even though their result against the League of Legends Pro League champions, Royal Never Give Up, was also newsworthy, the real story of the match happened during champion selection. BrokenBlade locked in Riven in the top lane, the champion that gave him his tag.

Despite his association with Riven due to his skill on the champion in solo queue, BrokenBlade heading into this MSI 2022 matchup had only played her four other times in his entire professional career, according to Gol.gg. In fact, the last time BrokenBlade played Riven in an official match was back in 2021, during the 2021 LEC summer split as a member of FC Schalke 04 Esports. However, that game ended in a loss, as BrokenBlade went 0/4/2 against Misfits Gaming Shin “HiRit” Tae-min ‘s Viego, who went 6/0/7.

The last time BrokenBlade won on Riven was back in 2019 while he was still in the League of Legends Championship Series with TSM. That game was a near 60-minute slugfest that surprisingly only had 17 kills between both teams. BrokenBlade only had one of those. He came into this match at MSI 2022 with a 2-2 record on Riven throughout his career.

In an attempt to finally carry a game on Riven, BrokenBlade went up against the struggling RNG top laner Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin, who was playing Gwen. Unfortunately for BrokenBlade the pick proved to be ineffective.

BrokenBlade took Ignite and Teleport for his summoners spells on Riven and earned criticism for the lack of counter play on the live broadcast throughout the game. BrokenBlade only managed to put up a 1/2/2 stat line in the 26-minute game as RNG ran through G2. Bin was much more effective for his team, going 1/1/7 on Gwen.

G2 only managed to take one tower in the game. They were down 10k gold by the time the nexus exploded.

The loss put BrokenBlade’s career record on Riven at 2-3. It also puts G2’s record in the MSI 2022 Rumble stage to 4-2. They started off the stage with a perfect 4-0 record.