The Recall: What we learned from MSI 2023 Playoffs Week 1

T1 and JD Gaming advanced to the Upper Bracket Final while MAD Lions and Golden Guardians were eliminated — here's what we learned from the second week of the 2023 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) at Copper Box Arena in London, England.

Korea's T1 (League of Legends Champions Korea/LCK, #2) logged 127 kills in eight games in Week 2, which led all teams, and bot laner Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong accounted for 57 of them, which led all players; his 44.9% kill share also led all players. T1's 88% first tower percentage leads the tournament.

China's JDG (League of Legends Professional League/LPL, #1) are the only team left at MSI 2023 with no game losses and are 6-0 in games, 2-0 in series. Their 120-63 (or 1.9) kill-death ratio is the highest of any team, while their 63 deaths rank the lowest of any team. The squad also leads in gold spent percentage (61.9%) and first three towers percentage (91%).

Finally, JDG jungler Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok sports the best jungle CS share (55.2%) and support Lou "Missing" Yun-Feng's 95 assists in six games lead all Week 2 players.

Europe's MAD (League of Legends EMEA Championship/LEC, #1) and America's GG (League of Legends Championship Series/LCS, #1) each finished in 7th-8th place and became the first major region teams to be eliminated from MSI 2023 with their combined 1-12 performance, and MAD (0-6 in games, 0-2 in series) joined Japan's DetonatioN Focus Me (League of Legends Japanese League, #1) as the only teams without a single game win at the tournament.

GG (9-8 in games, 3-3 in series) are still the team with the most games (17), wins (9), and losses (8) at MSI 2023, while bot laner Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes and support Choi "huhi" Jae-hyun lead in total kills (93) and assists (177), respectively.

Other notable stats

• Gen.G have the best percentage of lane CS across Weeks 1 and 2 with 51.6% .
• While Bilibili Gaming still has the largest average gold difference at 15 minutes with 2,099, it's most on the strength of their Week 1 performance, as their average GD@15 was only 77 for Week 2.
• Three players have attained a CS per minute of 10 or better: T1 Gumayusi (10.2), JDG bot laner Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk (10.2), and GEN bot laner Kim "Peyz" Su-hwan (10.1).
• BLG bot laner Zhao "Elk" Jia-Hao currently possesses the best gold difference at 10 minutes (510), Xp difference at 10 minutes (477), and CS difference at 10 minutes (11.9) among all MSI 2023 players.
• Aphelios is the most picked champion of MSI 2023, appearing in 32 of 53 games so far.
• The champ with the highest pick-ban rate overall is Vi with 92.5%, but K'Sante's 100% pick-ban in Week 2 hasn't yet been matched.

Jame's Player of the Week: JDG Ruler (50/10/48 in six games), 1st

JDG bot laner Ruler torched the competition with 50 kills in six games in Week 2, as well as leading in KDA (9.8), kills per game (8.33), deaths (10), and damage per minute (950). Honorable mention to T1 Gumayusi.

All stats from Leaguepedia and Oracle's Elixir. Featured photos courtesy of Colin Young-Wolff and Gary Handley/Riot Games.