2.3M people tuned in to watch G2 Esports push T1 to the limit

League of Legends

10 May

Foo Zen-Wen

The G2 Esports vs T1 match that just concluded shattered the standing peak viewership record for MSI 2024. An unsurprising feat considering the collective fandom numbers for both teams individually.

Next to BLG vs PSG Talon yesterday, the match between G2 and T1 was the quintessential match to watch so far at MSI 2024. East meets West. A rematch half a decade in the making. The last hope of the West pushed the defending Worlds champions to Silver Scrapes, being the first Western team in the Bracket Stage of MSI 2024 to do so.

G2 Push T1 to Silver Scrapes

In 2019, G2 Esports famously took T1 out of MSI in a now legendary semi-final Bo5 between the two organization. In that series, T1 was the first to reach series point, with G2 not only managing to force Silver Scrapes, but then also closing it out against the Korean goliaths.

Fast-forward to 2024, with the end of the Play-Ins stage, the draw show took place for the remaining 8 teams’ matchups. In the first round, T1 found themselves matched up against their former adversary. Despite an incredibly close series, even reaching series point first, G2 was unable to close out against the defending Worlds champions, falling 2-3 into the lower bracket.

T1 advance along the upper bracket, set to face Bilibili Gaming next. G2 have fallen to the lower bracket, facing PSG Talon in an elimination series.

T1 vs G2 shatter peak viewer record at Mid-Season Invitational

Not only did G2 nearly do the unthinkable, but their match has already shattered the standing peak viewership record. Previously, the T1-Estrals match (opening match of MSI 2024) had held the record with 1.5 million peak viewers.

However, T1-G2 delivered 2.3 million peak viewers according to Esports Charts, making it not only by far the most watched match thus far at MSI 2024, but already nearly going par for par with the LCK 2024 Spring Finals, which peaked at just over 2.6 million.

T1 vs G2 MSI 2024: How did it go down?

As we mentioned in our first-round predictions article, T1 and G2 match up extremely well stylistically. Both teams have no aversion to off-meta picks and love to flex their individuals’ champion pools through draft diversity and flexibility.

Game 1:

G2 answered the Zeus’ Twisted Fate with a Yasuo, countering T1’s strategy to feed Zeus into a hard-winning matchup. Unfortunately for T1, it backfired massively as not only was Zeus largely negated, but Caps also found early picks for T1 through a level 7 misstep from Faker, leading to a kill under turret for Caps on the Tristana.

That said, in the later stages of the game, Gumayusi on the Varus shone bright as he shredded through G2 in crucial teamfights after teamfights. Moreover, Caps on the Tristana quickly became a non-factor as Oner and Faker started coming online, shutting down G2’s avenues of approach while setting up incredible teamfight opportunities for their carries.

Game 2:

In Game 2, G2 answered back with an incredible Rek’Sai jungle that negated Oner’s choice of jungle in Viego. Moreover, across the board, it appeared as if G2 wanted to scale back on the aggressive picks, and instead fall back on more comfortable, traditional picks. T1 even matched tank for tank in the top lane to play front-to-back compositions. The one outlier came in the form of Keria, who flexed onto the Neeko, a signature pick of his.

T1’s composition allowed for early success, but as the game progressed, this time it was G2 who brought themselves back into the series, evening out the gold differential before winning an important fight in the mid lane after catching a flash-less Faker.

Game 3:

Pressed to innovate, T1 opted for the 2nd pick Aurelion Sol as an answer into Caps’ Orianna – a champion Faker has never played in professional play prior to today. Keria paired the bold pick with another wildcard – Camille support. However, T1 appeared to have out-drafted themselves, as Mikyx on the Poppy put a quick counter to Keria’s surprise pick.

Caps on the Orianna was also afforded three engagers in the form of Vi, Yasuo, and Poppy. Game 3 was a game of mistakes and punishment. G2 systematically forced and punished mistakes from T1, pushing their found lead into a win in under 30 minutes.

Game 4:

Backs against the wall and facing a potential loss and fall to the lower bracket, T1 opted back onto their signature comfort picks as a surefire way to mentally reset back into the series after two hard losses.

Faker goes back on the Azir, Keria has his Bard, and Zeus is on K’Sante duty. This also marked the first time K’Sante was played into this series. Still looking for an answer into Gumayusi’s Varus, G2 picked Kog’Maw ADC for Hans Sama.

Despite G2’s best attempts, T1 started out strong and never let their foot off the pedal, securing a win in 26 minutes and 20 seconds.

Game 5:

Unlike the previous games, Game 5 was incredibly tame in terms of kills. Moreover, it was the first time in the series that G2 attempted a lane swap. This was in response to T1’s trap in the pick/ban phase which came from their double ADC red side picks of Varus-Kalista, forcing G2 to pivot hard into a Poppy counter once again.

G2 began game 5 with an incredible lead, starting with a blue side invade which took 3 of their own flashes and 2 of T1’s. From there, Hans Sama led the charge on Jinx with an early triple kill, thanks in large part to incredible setups from Mikyx on the Poppy.

Despite all that however, T1 stabilized in the mid game, thanks to Faker’s Ahri, who had largely been left untouched in the game thus far and had even been enabled by Oner’s Lee Sin to garner a sizeable gold lead on Caps.

With Hans not purchasing Last Whisper, opting instead for the Zeal, the Jinx never had enough armor penetration to take down the T1 frontline, leading to stalled out fights which favored T1. After 37 minutes, T1 took down the G2 Nexus, ending the series finally.

Credit: Liu YiCun/Riot Games

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