G2 Esports took down Team WE in the Mid-Season Inivitational Semi-Finals on Saturday. With this win G2 advance to face SK Telecom T1 in the finals on Sunday, while Team WE are eliminated from the competition.

The first game of the series started with Team WE going up early, but losing their lead in the midgame as G2 began to take over. Their superior team composition and team fighting mechanics allowed them to keep the game going until late and when they were able to take a huge number of objectives quickly to win the first game.

Game two gave us a different G2 than we have seen at MSI so far as Trick completely took over the game from the beginning on Olaf. This gave G2 a massive lead that they used to systematically end the game.

The third game of the series Team WE brought an all AD composition that relied heavily on getting an early lead. Thankfully for them they took the lead early and never let up. This helped them slowly take down G2’s towers in a 40 minute win.

In the final game G2 got off to a rocky start, but quickly found their footing thanks to a huge fight bottom lane that gave them five kills and led to three towers going down. After that fight, Team WE never had a chance. G2 took their time pushing each lane and despite a solid Baron steal from Condi, Team WE couldn’t get around the fantastic teamfights of G2.

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5:53 pm ET — G2 go for Baron but it’s stolen by WE. The down side: It leads to a 3-1 trade in favor of G2 and costs WE an inhibitor tower.

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5:41 pm ET — G2 off to a fantastic start as they overwhelm WE taking 3 towers in the first 14 minutes and going up 5-4 in kills and 3k up in gold.

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5:27 pm ET — Pick and Ban Game 4

G2 are going to be looking for picks as well as sitting on their massive single target damage to single out Kog’Maw. Meanwhile WE are going to have to protect Kog’Maw mostly through their Kled and Fizz damage.

G2: Galio, Kha’Zix, Syndra, Varus, Karma

Bans: Zyra, Caitlyn, Ivern, Nami, Shen

WE: Kled, Lee Sin, Fizz, Kog’Maw, Tahm Kench

Bans: Olaf, Kennen, Lulu, Fiora, Rumble

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5:04 pm ET — Team WE dominated from the get go in that game and never let up taking the game at almost 40 minutes and bringing them back into the series.

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4:58 pm ET — WE continue to build on their commanding lead breaking into the G2 base and taking an inhibitor.

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4:48 pm ET — WE grab a 22 minute Baron after a 4-1 fight. With a 4k gold lead they are in the best place of the series so far.

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4:35 pm ET — G2 are off to another strong lead in the early game here jumping up 1k gold quickly thanks to their 2-0 lead in kills.

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4:25 pm ET — Pick and Ban Game 3

WE are going all in with this game in a desperation move to let Mystic carry. However, they are going to be pretty reliant on an early lead so that G2 can’t just use armor to counter their comp. On top of that, the ability to get picks could be pretty overwhelming from G2.

WE: Shen, Lee Sin, Jayce, Kog’Maw, Nami

Bans: Kennen, Olaf, Ivern, Fiora, Syndra

G2: Galio, Graves, Ahri, Caitlyn, Thresh

Bans: Lulu, Karma, Zyra, Lucian, Leblanc

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4:04 pm ET — G2 win again!

There are some valid criticisms of the way that G2 closed that game, but don’t let it distract from just how well they played. They took an early lead and pushed the lead well.

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3:40 pm ET — These two teams couldn’t be more opposite from their Group Stage identities in this game. G2 is playing a fantastic early game based around Trick’s pathing and ganks and WE looks utterly lost making decisions as if they were afraid the game was going to end in the next couple minutes.

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3:31 pm ET — A brief explanation of the first 3 minutes of this game: Condi had a great idea to invade Trick’s red buff and steal it. Then Condi got really greedy and decided that he could get blue too. xiye didn’t back him up so he got collapsed upon losing all the buffs he had, first blood gold and going really really far down in CS.

In the bottom lane both supports killed both AD Carries.

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3:26 pm ET — Pick and Ban Game 2

G2 have great teamfight with this comp as well as some good pick potential. But this comp also gives some strong counter engage. WE are going to be in a tougher place. They can teamfight well, but forcing those fights is going to rely on the right combination of Weaver’s Wall and Ashe Arrow.

G2: Galio, Olaf, Syndra, Varus, Karma

Bans: Zyra, Fizz, Caitlyn, Leblanc, Lucian

WE: Rumble, Lee Sin, Taliyah, Ashe, Thresh

Bans: Kennen, Ivern, Lulu, Gragas, Orianna

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3:03 pm ET — Team WE have some of the most questionable teamfight positioning and choices so far at MSI. 957 runs into a fight for no reason at all and it costs WE the game. A very well played match from G2. They recognize the strengths of their comp and fight around it effectively.

WE look dumbfounded at that loss.

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3:00 pm ET — For the second time in a row WE has gotten a Baron but lost at least one member and this time a tower. There may be a gold lead, but this game is almost even. WE’s low damage is really starting to show. If G2 had a tank this would be their game to lose.

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2:49 pm ET — The fights are nearly constant in this game and G2 has secured a solid lead on kills at 10-15, but they have been unable to capitalize with objectives so far. Thanks to that WE still holding a 3k gold.

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2:37 pm ET — WE get way too aggressive going for the bottom tower and lose a 3-0 trade and a tower giving G2 a 1.5k gold lead and Perkz a scoreline of 4/0/2 against a fairly vulnerable team.

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2:34 pm ET — Things may have seemed bad in the first few minutes for G2, but a forced teamfight at dragon is exactly what they needed. They trade 3-1 in a fight and manage to bring gold almost even.

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2:29 pm ET — The two teams have traded kills thanks to two Trick ganks bottom lane. The first one was botched giving WE first blood, but the second worked out pulling out a kill on Mystic.

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2:19 pm ET — Pick and Ban Game 1

Team WE are going with a comp that should be pretty familiar for anyone who has watched them at MSI so far. They are going to go for siege’s and effective burst damage. Meanwhile, G2 are going to be looking for picks with the Ashe Arrow with full teamfights and AOE damage as a backup.

WE: Gragas, Ivern, Lucian, Caitlyn, Malzahar

Bans: Kennen, Lee Sin, Tahm Kench, Fiora, Graves

G2: Rumble, Olaf, Viktor, Ashe, Taric

Bans: Lulu, Karma, Zyra, Kled, Fizz

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After a dominating SK Telecom sweep in the first 2017 Mid-Season Invitational semifinal, we move onto the second between European champions G2 Esports and Chinese title winners Team WE. The series is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. ET.

WE had the better group stage performance, finishing with the second seed after posting a 7-3 record. WE was the only team besides SKT to finish the group stage with more wins than loss, and even beat SKT once in the group stage. WE also won both of its group stage games against G2.

After beginning the tournament 3-3, G2 went on a 1-3 slide that nearly knocked it out of the tournament. But a win against North America’s Team SoloMid on the final day of the group stage secured a spot in the semifinal round, where the team will look to make up for international disappointments of the past -- by making it past the group stage, this is already the most successful international tournament in G2 history.

Lineups

G2 Esports

• Ki “Expect” Dae-han
• Kim “Trick” Gang-yun
• Luka “PerkZ” Perković
• Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen
• Alfonso “mithy” Aguirre Rodríguez

Team WE

• Ke “957” Chang-Yu
• Xiang “Condi” Ren-Jie
• Su “xiye” Han-Wei
• Jin “Mystic” Seong-jun
• Nam “Ben” Dong-hyun

Series info and how to watch

The G2 vs. Team WE semifinal will be a best-of-five series watchable on Lolesports as well as on the Riot Games Twitch channel. It is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. ET, or 3 p.m. local time.