PSG Talon vs T1 Prediction: An easy win for the Koreans

The seventh game day of the first international LoL tournament kicks off on Friday, May 20. The sixth match of the Rumble stage of the Mid-Season Invitational 2022 will see PSG Talon and T1.

The Mid-Season Invitational 2022 is a LAN tournament in the cybersports discipline of League of Legends, featuring the winners of the spring splits of 11 separate Riot leagues, with LCL not sending a representative this spring due to the cancellation of the LCL Spring Split. It was also announced on April 21 that the LPL representative would compete online from China due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and all teams will compete at 35ms to level the playing field. The tournament prize money is $250,000.

T1 is a Korean eSports team run by T1 Entertainment & Sports, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor, formed from SK Telecom T1 K and SK Telecom T1 S. They were previously known as SK Telecom T1.

SK Telecom T1 made their debut at IEM Cologne in 2012, securing the title for the Korean team by beating Fnatic 2-1. This team then split into SK Telecom T1 K and SK Telecom T1 S before the teams merged in 2015. This team looked like a major contender, winning the 2015 LCK Spring Split and then finishing 2nd at the 2015 MSI. After the 2015 LCK Summer Split Championship, SKT won their first World Championship, defeating their compatriots KOO Tigers 3-1 in the final. Since then, SK Telecom T1 has won 3 consecutive titles, the IEM Season X World Championship, LCK 2016 Spring Split, and MSI 2016, while KT Rolster broke their streak by beating them 3-2 in the LCK 2016 Summer semifinals. Despite this, the 2016 World Cup was won by SKT.

After the disappointing results, SK Telecom T1 rebuilt its team in 2019. This led to them winning several titles during the year. They won the 2019 LCK Spring Split and the 2019 LCK Summer Split but lost at international tournaments, finishing 3-4th. This led to another rebuild in 2020. They won the spring split of LCK 2020 but finished 5th in the summer and failed to qualify for the 2020 World Championships after losing in the regional final to Gen.G Esports.

After T1 finished 3-4th at the 2021 World Cup, the team again decided to reshuffle, after which they managed to become the first LCK team to never lose in the regular season, breaking their own LCK Summer 2015 record where they finished with 17/1.

With the attitude of an undefeated T1 team, they made it to the Mid-Season Invitational, which started with the easiest of three wins. The same trend continued on the final day of the group stage, where the Koreans picked up three more victories in a row, going 6-0 to the next stage. In their first match, T1 will face G2 Esports, who are determined to knock off the winning streak of the Korean squad, as well as continue their winning streak in their head-to-head encounters. T1 last defeated G2 Esports in 2017 in the MSI 2017 final but have never been able to beat their opponents since then, losing 4 meetings in a row in 2019. Four hours later, T1s will play their second match of the day against PSG Talon. This encounter should go fairly quietly, but a long wait could also play a part in the outcome of this encounter.

Talon Esports has been announced as one of the 10 teams competing in the PCS in 2019. Their roster was announced for 2020 and consists of Hanabi, River, Candy, Unified, and Kaiwing. They won their debut season by beating Machi Esports 3-2 in the spring final. Unfortunately, the MSI 2020 was canceled, which meant no full international debut for the team. Despite this, they faced the Vietnamese teams at the Mid Season Showdown and won the title, defeating Team Flash 3-1 in the final. They teamed up with Paris Saint-Germain eSports ahead of the summer season to rebrand themselves as PSG Talon. They finished second after a 0: 3 loss to Machi Esports in that split. At Worlds 2020, PSG Talon finished 9-12 after a 2/4 record in their group.

In 2021, PSG Talon signed Maple. They went 17-1 in the regular season and beat J Team and Beyond Gaming to win the title and qualify for MSI 2021. At the MSI 2021 itself, the boys finished 4th, securing a spot in the first pool for their region at Worlds 2021. PSG Talon remained undefeated in the summer of 2021 but lost a game to Beyond Gaming in the playoffs, thus ending their series. Despite this, they won the split, beating Beyond Gaming 3-2 in the final. This led to them qualifying directly for Worlds 2021. They started their first week well, going 2-1 with wins over Hanwha Life Esports and Fnatic, but the team lost in week two and dropped out in a 9th-12th place with a 3/3 record, behind Royal Never Give Up and Hanwha Life Esports.

After Worlds, the squad suffered several replacements, with which they advanced into the new season. 2022 began with a group stage in which PSG Talon finished in first place with a 16-2 statistic, but in the playoffs, initially, CTBC Flying Oyster sent PSG Talon 3-1 to the bottom, from which the boys made it to the grand final and there beat the same CTBC Flying Oyster 3-2, thus qualifying for MSI 2022. The Mid-Season Invitational itself got off to a terrible start for PSG Talon. The boys lost to the Brazilians from RED Canids in the opening match without a single kill. In the second match, where the Chinese from Royal Never Give Up were waiting for them, PSG Talon changed their midterms and let Azhi play. This did not give them any success at the end of the match, but the boys looked more confident than in the first encounter. In the third match, the Turks from İstanbul Wildcats were waiting for them, who lost to the boys, from PSG Talon, in 23 minutes. On the final day of the group stage, when the guys had to play 3 matches, PSG Talon managed to victory in a crucial match against RED Canids, thereby going 3-3 out of the group to the Rumble stage. This stage won't be easy for them. 2 teams will leave the tournament, and these places are claimed by PSG Talon, Evil Geniuses, and Saigon Buffalo. PSG Talon will face Saigon Buffalo in the first match, where they should take the win for themselves. However, PSG Talon will have a second encounter 2 hours later, where they will face T1. If PSG Talon loses the first match, they will have to focus all their strength to bounce back from that defeat in the match against the Koreans.

In this match, I see that both teams will be able to kill the dragon, so I will take this outcome for 1.80.

Also, I'll take Total Under 27.5 kills for 1.83.

I'll also take the duration of the map under 25 minutes for 1.75.

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