Updated on May 19, 9:43 p.m. (GMT+8): Added Riot’s note regarding Worlds 2024 qualification.
Updated on May 19, 9:15 p.m. (GMT+8): Added MSI 2024 grand finals MVP winner.
Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon’s wish came true.
After beating Bilibili Gaming 3-1 in the upper bracket final, he said in the post-match broadcast interview that a one-time revenge wasn’t enough — he wanted to go up against the LPL number one seed a second time and knock them out.
There’s beef between these two teams because BLG was responsible for eliminating the Tiger Nation at MSI and Worlds last year, cutting short their international playoffs run twice in a row.
At MSI 2024, the story finally changes. Gen.G rise up to win their first-ever Mid-Season Invitational, 3-1 — it’s also Chovy’s first-ever international final and win after seven years since his pro career debut with Griffin.
Gen.G vs BLG
Karthus is the most underrated jungler this tournament, confirmed
Gen.G open the grand final series on blue side with a shocker — Karthus jungle, who hasn’t been seen this tournament.
The AP jungler opens up Yone for Chovy in the mid lane. Coupled with Senna, Gen.G went for full scaling. It’s also worth noting they don’t have reliable engage for team fights, and would need to kite back on this lineup.
On the opposite side, BLG’s team composition peaks in the mid game, has solid AOE and crowd control, and packs insurance from Twisted Fate in the late game.
As expected, BLG gained early map control, downed more towers, and secured the first three dragons of the game, leading in gold.
Gen.G knew that they had to fight at the fourth dragon spawn, but lost it in the 50-50 and gave up their lives in the process.
Nonetheless, they reset, and found the opening they were looking for — a pick onto Peng “Xun” Li-Xun. With the enemy jungler down, they went straight for Baron and won the team fight after.
The next big battle was at Elder Dragon, where we witness Gen.G’s late game team composition kicking in.
Even though three members fell, the most important two stood tall — Chovy’s Yone and Kim “Kiin” Gi-in’s K’Sante who was zoning out BLG’s backline like a boss, giving his mid laner space to finish off and secure the objective alone.
In the end, all BLG could get this game was the first four dragons and Chemtech Soul.
At the second Elder Dragon spawn, they simply could not out-damage or out-heal Senna and Karthus, nor did they have the damage to threaten K’Sante. A final ace 37 minutes in put Gen.G up 1-0 in the series.
Blitzcrank!? In an international final? It’s Lehends after all
Showing all their cards this grand final, Gen.G on red side in game two threw in a surprise adaption a second time.
Seeing the double AD carry bot lane, they respond by drafting Blitzcrank for Son “Lehends” Si-woo, one of his signature support champions.
On the side of BLG, they drafted a more standard composition with ball carriers for Orianna led by Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin’s ultimate champion, Camille.
Most skirmishes in the early to mid game were led by Lehend’s Blitzcrank on the side of Gen.G. He kept burning flashes from the two immobile AD carries, then got his team to finish them off when the Summoner Spell was on cooldown.
More importantly, together with Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu’s Sejuani, they constantly roamed to disallow Bin from ever being in a 1v1 situation. Each time he pushed out, he got ganked by three to four Gen.G members.
Hand delivering explosive kills to his team in every encounter, the kill score soared to the double digits. At the 32 minute mark, BLG gave it their best punch with a Orianna-Camille wombo combo that deleted Kim “Peyz” Su-hwan’s Kalista, which led to securing the Elder Dragon buff.
While this did shake Gen.G up a bit, they played it slow, regrouped, and pushed out the lanes, using the open inhibitors to their advantage.
Finally past 38 minutes, they closed it out with 38 kills to 17. Out of the 38, Peyz had a total of 27 and only two deaths. He made LoL esports history, setting the record for the most kills in an international game.
I spent ages trying to think of a decent Bin pun. Turns out, they were all rubbish.
Switching up their team comp again, Gen.G pulled a 180, opting for poke in Ashe support, Hwei mid, with overall long-range AOE.
BLG take their turn on Senna and Tahm Kench, a definite late game assurance. They also had double long-range poke in Nidalee and Jayce.
It was a completely different game, for now it was Gen.G’s turn to pay the price of the double AD carry bot lane that got bullied by fast rotations from Xun and Zhuo “knight” Ding. By mid game, they only had two kills to BLG’s seven.
The first full on 5v5 happened at the fourth dragon spawn, which Gen.G really wanted to secure, especially since Ocean Drake would help against the incoming poke.
A well-orchestrated teleport by Bin from an unseen ward split up their opponents. They divided and conquered, won the fight, and were up by 3,000 gold.
Disciplined on both sides in a tense game three, each skirmish kept going back and forth with no clear winner on either side. After all, neither composition had hard, reliable engage. Instead, each sought to poke each other down. Eventually, Gen.G secured Ocean Soul.
Finally, 39 minutes into the game, a humungous play from Bin tipped the scales. Timing the Flash-stun on Jax to perfection, he found Chovy, whom the team instantly deleted.
Making Gen.G run for the hills, they denied the sweep and kept their heads in the game.
Open Nexus makes the most tense League of Legends game ever
Game four showcases what could possibly be one of the most balanced team compositions on both sides, and the way the game played out reflected that.
Taking no risks, Chovy finally plays a stable and reliable Azir in mid. Instead of Tahm Kench however, Gen.G opted for Maokai support for Lehends, who is able to help with bush-checking.
Bin once again was allowed to play Camille, and it’s also the first time this series we see Zeri appear.
After a stalemate, it’s Lehends who broke open the game. After the first Baron spawn at the 20-minute mark, Luo “ON” Wen-Jun facechecked a bush on the top side and paid with his life.
Thanks to this opportune pick-off, the team fended off BLG’s offense, secured Baron, and broke top lane’s inhibitor.
At the second Baron, Xun made a hero play and stole it right under Cayon’s nose, which tremendously helped his team break open Gen.G’s base.
After barely winning a late game 37-minute fight around Baron, BLG almost ended the game, but Peyz’s death timer came up just on time for him to take out knight’s Tristana, who downed both Nexus turrets. Xun also tried to make a beeline to the Nexus, but Chovy was waiting for him.
Knowing how vulnerable they were, Gen.G maintained discipline and control, keeping a solid defense around their open Nexus.
Everything was finally decided at Elder Dragon — Gen.G held onto their teleports, sending Chovy and Kiin back to base to defend, while the rest cleaned up at Elder.
Playing tower defense, Kiin and Chovy literally stood guard and hovered around their base, preventing knight and Bin from recalling. This allowed the rest of the squad to down the enemy Nexus to win their first-ever MSI championship.
For his outstanding performance in this series, Lehends won the MSI 2024 Finals MVP.
With this championship win, Gen.G qualifies for Worlds 2024 as long as they make it to the LCK Summer 2024 playoffs.
READ MORE: Faker’s full list of podium finishes throughout his long League of Legends career
