MSI 2021 Power Rankings (6–1)
23 APRIL 2021 — by League Analyst
It’s time for the second part of out MSI power rankings! Last time around we covered the half of the attending teams and today we’re finishing it off with the remaining six teams. Lets not waste any time and get right into it!
6 - GAM Esports (VCS)
Due to national travel restrictions, the Vietnamese representative GAM Esports will not be able to attend MSI. But despite of the unfortunate situation, GAM will get a spot on the list as the 6th rated team for the Mid Season Invitational.
This is undoubtedly the best snowballing team of the tournament and has averaged a crazy+2627 gold difference at 15 minutes over in the VCS, with the PCS representative being the only team even remotely close to challenging that statistic in MSI. This aggression earned GAM the first spot in the 2021 spring regular season and the team eventually qualified for MSI by beating Saigon Buffalo 3–1 in the VCS final.
Last time we saw GAM at the international stage was at worlds 2019. Since then, only jungler Levi and toplaner Kiaya (who played midlane for the team during worlds 2019) remains on the roster. And it is Levi that has made a name for himself as one of the most prestigious players in the VCS. His combination with Kiaya and Kati has made the GAM topside deadlier than ever with the team rolling over their national competition.
5 - PSG Talon (PCS)
The super team of the PCS is coming to MSI to represent the region on the international stage once again. It’s four fifths of the roster that we got to see at worlds 2020, with Maple coming in to replace Tank in the midlane. This is essentially a combination of the solo lanes from the old Flash Wolves roster and the botlane-duo from HK Attitude, both coming from the old LMS region.
This team has absolutely slaughtered the PCS and ended the split with a 27–1 game score. They have both the best mid-jungle duo and the best botlane-duo in the region and the only arguable weak point of the team has been Hanabi, who has been put on weak side duty in the toplane. Besides that trend, PSG has been completely unpredictable, playing almost every strategy available.
Even with the varying strategies, PSG has averaged +2450 gold differential at 15 minutes, the 2nd highest GD15 of the entire MSI tournament. In their own region, PSG has nothing left to prove, now all that remains is to concur the international competition.
4 - Mad Lions (LEC)
The Lions are coming back to the international stage after winning their first championship in the LEC. With two new additions in Elyoya and Armut, it has been a year of growth for this team and they have been improving rapidly during the spring split.
Elyoya was awarded “rookie of the split” in spring and has been a key player ever since joining the squad. His selfless and decisive playstyle allows the rest of the Lions to play with a lot of confidence during the laning phase.
But it is in the teamfights where the Lions really shine. They are arguably the best mid-game team in Europe and they draft with that win condition in mind. Engage supports and frontline toplaners enabling their carries to output huge amounts of damage is what we usually see from MAD, and breaking that formation will be key when trying to take them down.
3 - Cloud9 (LCS)
After failing to make worlds in 2020, Cloud9 has bounced back and claimed a spot at MSI after winning the 2021 Mid-Season Showdown over in the LCS. 2021 saw two new additions to the team, rookie toplaner Fudge and LEC legend Perkz. And when looking at this new C9 roster, it’s hard to ignore their new midlaner. Perkz is undoubtedly the most accomplished western League of Legends player of all time, and now he’s back at international stage with a new team to support him.
But it’s not only the Perkz show on C9. Jungler Blaber was awarded MVP of the split in spring and is just as scary as his midlane counterpart. This hyper aggressive mid-jungle duo is what defines this roster and allows them to grow early advantages and transfer those leads across the map.
As a team, C9 is the definition of high activity League of Legends, always going for plays and forcing their opponents into difficult positions. But this playstyle often come with a lack of precision and the team has a tendency to fumble their leads in the mid-game when trying to transfer them into victories. At peak form, Cloud9’s individual pieces are world class, but if they have the consistency to show up at MSI is a question yet to be answered.
2 - Royal Never Give Up (LPL)
We have reached the runner up spot in the rankings and here we find the LPL representative; Royal Never Give Up. This historical organization has not attended an international event in quite a few years and a lot of things have changed since we saw them last time. Their superstar ADC Uzi is no longer on the roster and the team dynamic has evolved considerably since we last saw the team at worlds 2019.
The two pieces remaining from that worlds roster is their support player Ming and former midlaner Xiaohu, who has swapped over to the toplane. That change was essentially the first and most important step of the rebuild of RNG, transforming them from a bottom side focused team to the topside terrors that we see today.
Xiaohu is the big pressure point of this roster and gets a lot of resources from the team to support his aggressive playstyle. His experience from the midlane gives the team a lot of strategical resources both in the draft and on the rift.
Playing that 4–1 setup and unlocking Wei and Ming to roam and set up plays around the map is what has brought RNG tons of success in 2021, qualifying to MSI by defeating FunPlus Phoenix 3–1 in the LPL final.
1 - DWG KIA (LCK)
The 2020 world champions are back again and the team is showing no signs of ending their quest of world domination. Since we saw them last time, DWG has won the KeSPA Cup and dominated the 2021 LCK spring split, averaging over +1k gold differential at 15 minutes. The team ended the split with a
22–2 game score.
What makes this squad so unbelievably good is their absurd flexibility. So far in 2021, the team has played 65 unique champions in 57 games and pretty much all of the DWG players have “champion oceans”, making them very hard to catch off guard in draft. Couple that with the fact that DWG is the best snowballing team in the LCK, with world class players in each role. It’s going to be extremely tough for the rest of the world to get past this squad.
It’s one of very few teams that you cannot find a clear weakness in. They are in most aspects a very complete team. They play everything, win when ahead, win from behind, they simply win most of the time. I think the biggest chance of DWG losing is if they enter the tournament too confident and get cocky. Besides that, there are few arguments against putting them as one of the clear favorites for the MSI trophy.
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