GAM Kiaya On Early MSI 2023 Exit
Not many people were expecting VCS’s GAM Esports to drop out of the 2023 Midseason Invitational as early as they did. In previous MSI tournaments, the VCS region had established itself as one of the strongest emerging regions in League of Legends. However, MSI 2023 was disappointing for the VCS region as their streak of making the main stage ended abruptly this past week against Movistar R7.
For GAM Esports top laner Trần “Kiaya” Duy Sang, it was nothing but earnest reflections about their performance at MSI 2023.
“We will need to focus on ourselves and fix our problems,” Kiaya said. “We just did not play well at all this tournament.”
Throughout MSI 2023, GAM Esports constantly found themselves outplayed in the early game on the international stage. Against Golden Guardians, GAM lost all control in the early laning phases before dropping their first series 0-2. However, their series against Movistar R7 was the biggest shock to the LoL community.
Heading into the GAM vs R7 LoL match, all expectations were set on GAM to win. Instead, they found themselves eliminated from MSI 2023 after a three-game series.
Once again, the biggest struggles came through the team’s “early gameplay,” according to Kiaya.
“Many of the problems came from the early game,” Kiaya said. “We did not do very well in the early game, which snowballs into the rest of the games.”
It was a challenging and surprising week for GAM’s hopes of a breakout MSI 2023 run. While it was hard to find any good takeaways, one thing made Kiaya smile after a tough tournament at MSI 2023.
Kiaya’s fifth year with GAM Esports
This recent month was a special time for Kiaya, as May 2023 represented his fifth year as a part of GAM Esports. While he didn’t achieve the results he hoped for at MSI 2023, it was a moment of honest reflection regarding loyalty and what being a part of GAM meant to him.
“GAM was the first team I played for,” Kiaya said. “They’ve always created the best environment for me and supported me when I didn’t have much support.”
It’s been a long journey to reach this point with GAM Esports for Kiaya. Still, looking back at all the memories he has created with the organization was what helped him crack a smile after a tough tournament.
“I’ve stayed with GAM Esports so long because they gave everything to me so I could succeed,” Kiaya said. “I just wanna repay that to them.”
GAM Esports’ run at MSI 2023 is officially over. They will now look towards winning the VCS 2023 Summer Split to make a deeper run at Worlds 2023. The team will move into the offseason as they watch the remaining eight teams in the MSI 2023 bracket stage.
What is the MSI 2023 Schedule?
The MSI 2023 bracket stage will begin on May 9, 2023, where the remaining eight teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket to become MSI 2023 champions.
Those looking to understand what League of Legends patch teams will compete on can check out our article on League of Legends Patch 13.8 for the MSI update.
MSI 2023 is streamed live through Riot Games’ Twitch and YouTube channels.
Sage got his start in esports as a volunteer writer in 2016 for esports organization, Dignitas. Since then, he has continued to work on his craft as a journalist and reporter for a number of established esports publications, such as esports.gg, Unikrn, Akshon Esports, Howla, The Player’s Lobby, Nerd Street Gamers, and most recently Dot Esports. Now, as a member of Esports Illustrated’s content team, Sage’s primary duties are centered around creating groundbreaking written and video content about the esports industry that impacts the community in a meaningful way. Sage graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and Informatics. There, he was a member of the Rutgers Esports Executive Board, both as the head of the fighting game community and a videographer/photographer for the Content team.