The Main Stage of the Mid-Season Invitational kicked off with a best-of-five between Gen.G and G2 Esports. While things started well for the LEC’s second seed with a win in Game 1, the top team from the LCK—and arguably the best in the world—quickly turned the series around. Gen.G secured a 3-1 victory and advanced to the next round, where they’ll face the winner of Anyone’s Legend vs FlyQuest, set to take place on Wednesday at 5 PM PST.

The night was full of hope for European fans, as G2 made a strong entrance with a dominant win in the opening game of the Main Stage, though it was their 14th game of the tournament when counting the MSI Play-In. For Gen.G, it was their very first, and it showed. A Lethality Varus from Steven "Hans Sama" Liv and a sharp Jax from Sergen "BrokenBlade" Çelik secured Game 1 for G2. Unfortunately for them, it would be the only game where they truly managed to shine.

The Gen.G juggernaut

Hope only lasted one game for G2. In Game 2, Gen.G came back fired up—Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk's Jhin completely took over with a 13/2/10 scoreline and over 42,000 damage dealt. Game 3 was all about Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu, who delivered a flawless Lee Sin performance, diving side lanes early and setting up a clean snowball for Gen.G. The final game was a bit closer in the early stages, partly thanks to Dr. Mundo in the jungle making an impact for G2, but once again, the spotlight was on Ruler. His Corki got ahead early and topped the damage charts, while Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon held down midlane with his usual consistency.

In the next Bo5, Anyone’s Legend will face FlyQuest to decide who advances to face Gen.G in Upper Bracket Round 2. The loser drops to the Lower Bracket to play G2 on July 5 at 2 AM CET, leaving the LEC representatives just one series away from elimination.