Team Liquid shocked Karmine Corp in the MSI Play-Ins Lower Bracket to eliminate the French organization 3-0 at MSI 2026.
Karmine Corp were the favorites to take the NA/EU clash before Tuesday morning’s contest, but were comprehensively outdrafted, outmacroed, and outfought by the Team Liquid roster.
Karmine Corp is a major blow to the LEC’s prestige, but an unexpected bonus for the LCS as Team Liquid prepares to rematch T1 in the Play-Ins final for a spot in the main event of MSI.
Karmine Corp drafts under the microscope
The result has already led to social media remonstrations regarding KC’s poor drafting strategy at the event. The contest followed KC’s 0-3 loss to T1, in which KC let Bard through in Game 2, the signature pick of Ryu ‘Keria’ Min-seok.
After winning the series, Keria mentioned in the post-match Player of the Match interview that he felt a bit rusty on the champion because it is always banned against him. With good reason, as Keria’s Bard is a win condition in and of itself, and he proved that again as T1 swept the series.
Game 2 against Team Liquid saw KC effectively make the same mistake against a different player and role, with Karmine Corp letting through Joel ‘Josedeodo’ Villegas’ Lee Sin.
The game, otherwise level, was blown open by the impact of Josedeodo, who delivered 35.6k damage in Game 2 to turn the game in TL’s direction.
For a long time, Josedeodo’s Lee Sin was Liquid’s only champion with a gold lead, yet that gold lead was so substantial that it overcame KC’s advantages elsewhere, ultimately dealing damage Karmine Corp could not deal with.
Team Liquid prepares for T1 rematch
Team Liquid will now look forward to a pressure-free rematch against T1 in the Play-In final. The NA team showed promise against T1 in their Upper Bracket contest despite T1 winning the series 3-0.
Team Liquid’s game plans generally worked in the previous contest in the early game, but T1’s relentless style and pressure proved too much.
Most notably, TL led Game 2 by 5.5k gold before T1 unexpectedly forced the Baron to recapture the momentum and turn the game around.
TL will have to be ready for every aspect of the T1 circus if they wish to turn the result around, but even this win against KC is a positive sign for the region, whose strength was perceived to be lower than LEC for much of this year.
For the EU region, it’s the return to the ‘one-team region’ meme, as once again all EU hope rests with G2 when the MSI main event begins on July 3.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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