SuperMassive eSports defeats Hard Random at IWCI, earns final MSI spot

The final entrant for the 2016 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational will be Turkey's SuperMassive eSports, after defeating Russia's Hard Random in the International Wild Card Invitational Finals Saturday in Mexico City, three games to one. SuperMassive will join SK Telecom T1, Royal Never Give Up, Flash Wolves, G2 Esports and Counter Logic Gaming in Shanghai.

These two teams looked like the best squads throughout the Wild Card tournament, finishing 5-2 in the round robin section before sweeping their semifinal competition. Hard Random made easy work of INTZ e-Sports in its first playoff matchup, while SuperMassive completely blew out the Saigon Jokers.

SuperMassive was one of the only teams to beat Hard Random in the round robin section of the tournament, but lost to Hard Random in the ensuing tiebreakers. Despite dropping Game 2 in Saturday's series, SuperMassive looked like the better team throughout the day, seeing very strong performances from top laner Thaldrin and support Dumbledoge.

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Game 1: SuperMassive eSports vs. Hard Random

Win: SuperMassive (18-6, 31:31)

After a successful two-tower lane swap, the game stayed relatively quiet until 10 minutes in, when Likkrit ganked middle and helped his team pick up two kills thanks to a successful Flash engage. SuperMassive pulled the back the lead with a series of favorable team fights thanks in large part to Thaldrin's peeling with Maokai and Naru's damage output with Azir.

Kira attempted to make a pick for Hard Random at 27 minutes, but SuperMassive was able to turn on him and win a 2-0 fight. After another 2-0 fight a minute later, SuperMassive picked up the first Baron of the game, using that buff to ace Hard Random while sieging an inhibitor and take the game.

Bans: Anivia, Ryze, Trundle; LeBlanc, Kindred, Elise

Game 2: Hard Random vs. SuperMassive eSports

Win: Hard Random (10-4, 33:25)

Kira made a surprising Vladimir pick despite an almost complete lack of crowd control in Hard Random's team composition, and Naru punished him early with Lulu, nearly doubling him up in creep score by 10 minutes and repeatedly pushing him out of lane. But it was Hard Random who picked up First Blood, as PvPStejos was able to pick Graves once again and picked off Dumbledoge with a well-timed gank.

Fortunes turned for Kira 15 minutes in, as he picked up a double kill during a team fight to help make up his gold disadvantage. His third kill of the game came three minutes later after Hard Random caught Thaldrin out of position, and by 22 minutes, the newly fed Kira was able to easily take on Naru 1 vs. 1.

SuperMassive shut down Kira for its first kill at 24 minutes, but it didn't do much to stop his onslaught. Because of how strong the Vladimir was able to get, he was able to put on a frightening solo split push, without anyone on SuperMassive able to stop him by themselves. Hard Random grouped up as five 30 minutes in and won a fight 3-0, allowing it to march into SuperMassive's base and end the game.

Bans: LeBlanc, Azir, Maokai; Anivia, Ryze, Lissandra

Game 3: SuperMassive eSports vs. Hard Random

Win: SuperMassive (19-11, 30:06)

Hard Random jumped out to a lead again thanks to PvPStejos's Graves, who invaded Stomaged's jungle and picked up a solo kill for First Blood. SuperMassive responded by picking off Kira, on the Vladimir once again, and PvPStejos, but Hard Random was able to react in time and pick up two kills of its own.

A Dragon fight at 21 minutes erupted into a full 5 vs. 5 affair, and despite Hard Random picking up three early kills, it was SuperMassive who ended up getting the Ace thanks to three kills from Achuu's Ezreal and two from Thaldrin's Ekko. SuperMassive built on that advantage, getting another triple kill onto Achuu two minutes later and taking Baron.

SuperMassive used the Baron buff to pick up two inhibitors and two more kills, building a 7k gold lead at 26 minutes. The next team fight went firmly in SuperMassive's favor, allowing the Turkish squad to close out the game and take back the series lead.

Bans: Anivia, Ryze, Trundle; LeBlanc, Azir, Lucian

Game 4: Hard Random vs. SuperMassive eSports

Win: SuperMassive (18-10, 28:57)

supermassive picks the graves away, smurf finally gets his trundle

The gold was even at 10 minutes, with three kills apiece going to Thaldrin's Nautilus and PvPStejos's Gragas. But SuperMassive held the pace advantage in the early game, controlling Dragon and building a small gold lead thanks to farm advantages in every lane.

That small lead was amplified 22 minutes in, when a Dragon fight turned disastrous for Hard Random and gave SuperMassive four kills. The Turkish squad used that opportunity to take Baron and closed out the game a few minutes later, taking the game, the series and the MSI spot.

Bans: LeBlanc, Azir, Maokai; Ryze, Anivia, Ekko