The classic Europe versus North America rivalry in League of Legends is about to come to a head at MSI.
The LEC’s second seeds, G2 Esports, will take on the LTA North champions FlyQuest in a 4th of July clash on North American soil.
While the match is in Canada, which already celebrated its equivalent holiday on July 1st, there will still be fireworks once the series concludes.
There’s especially pressure on FlyQuest as North America’s only representative at the tournament.
Their LTA South counterparts, FURIA, were eliminated in the MSI Play-Ins, partially thanks to G2.
The intense G2 vs FlyQuest best-of-five will eliminate the loser from the international LoL tournament.
That, with the added rivalry, should make for a very entertaining series.
It likely won’t be the cleanest LoL we’ll see this tournament, but it will be entertaining nonetheless.
MSI schedule: When is G2 Esports vs FlyQuest?
LoL MSI Round 2 starts on July 4th with the G2 vs FlyQuest series.
The best-of-five will start at 8pm BST on the Friday night, meaning European fans will actually be able to watch live.
Meanwhile, in Vancouver, it will be a midday start so locals will need to take the day off to support their region’s sole representative.
LoL MSI’s Game 1 experts
Both teams are strangely mirrored as they try to recover from opening-round defeats.
G2 and FlyQuest had strong performances, but we’ren’t able to handle the stiff competition of MSI’s unforgiving line-up.
G2 Esports won their first MSI game against Gen.G, which gave EMEA fans a small glimmer of hope.
Only for G2 to then lose 3-1 in a frustrating but unsurprising defeat against the South Korean top seeds.
Then, FlyQuest did the same. They pulled off an impressive win in Game 1 versus Anyone’s Legend.
However, they couldn’t continue their momentum against the LPL champions and proceeded to also lose 3-1.
Both teams genuinely looked relatively strong. Those Game 1s did show the high ceilings of both of these rosters.
But adapting drafts on the fly, pun not intended, is going to be crucial with the Fearless Draft ruleset.
Who is the favourite to win at MSI between G2 Esports and FlyQuest?
The way both teams lost in the previous round makes this series very difficult to judge.
Even the bookies on LoL betting sites think this series is going to be a close one, though FlyQuest are ever-so slightly favoured.
The question will be, who will be able to build on those performances coming into the LEC vs LTA series?
This FlyQuest team has proven it can perform internationally after the AL Game 1 and pushing Gen.G to five games at last year’s Worlds.
However, they have had one less day of preparation than opponents G2, which could make all the difference.
Especially as one of FlyQuest’s biggest issues against AL was arguably their drafting.
G2 have played 18 more competitive games on the current patch compared to FlyQuest, thanks to the Play-Ins.
G2’s performance against Gen.G was surprisingly solid considering their shaky Play-Ins run with close calls against FURIA and GAM Esports.
The LEC team has had plenty of time to get a read on the meta and fix their ongoing issues.
Now, G2 just needs to find some confidence and composure in what will likely be a chaotic series.
In my seven years of esports writing, I’ve introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I’m most proud of the latter.
