GAM Esports & DetonatioN FocusMe are the first two teams eliminated from MSI 2023
For Vietnam and Japan, the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational has come to an end. Vietnam Championship Series representative GAM Esports and League of Legends Japan League representative DetonatioN FocusMe were eliminated on day 4 of the MSI 2023 Play-In after respective losses to Movistar R7 and LOUD.
GAM began MSI 2023 by losing convincingly to League Championship Series 2nd seed Golden Guardians 0-2 and was matched with R7 after the latter lost to China’s second seed, Bilibili Gaming, by the same score. R7 AD carry Lorenzo "Ceo" Tévez had a great series on Xayah and jungler Sebastián "Oddie" Alonso Niño Zavaleta managed to get the better of his international rival Đỗ "Levi" Duy Khánh.
GAM made the series competitive and had plenty of big moments that pushed the series to its limit, but ultimately, it was the Latin American squad that took the 2-1 victory.
The second series of the day could not have been more different from the first. GAM vs. R7 was a contentious slugfest with thrown leads from both sides and plenty of chaos, but LOUD’s elimination of DFM was clinically efficient. DFM looked like they had lost a step since losing to Pacific Championship Series representative PSG Talon 0-2 in their first match of the tournament, especially given the large lead they had in the second game before ultimately losing.
LOUD had faced a similar situation in the first round of MSI 2023, throwing away a game 1 lead against League of Legends European Championship 2nd seed G2 Esports before losing the series 0-2, but the Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends representative came out swinging against DFM with a pair of sub-30 minute victories. LOUD outclassed DFM across the board, but the individual standouts were top laner Leonardo "Robo" Souza and AD carry Moon "Route" Geom-su, who dazzled on Gnar and Aphelios, respectively, in both wins.
In the next round of the MSI 2023 Play-In, LOUD will face off against PSG Talon while Movistar R7 takes on Golden Guardians. The winners of these best-of-three series’ will be pitted against one another in the Last Chance Qualifier best-of-five series to decide which team secures the final spot in the Bracket Stage.
