Vietnam's GIGABYTE Marines qualify for the 2017 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational main stage

Emily Rand

Garena Pro League representative from Vietnam, the GIGABYTE Marines, have qualified for the 2017 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational main stage.

The Marines entered the tournament as relative unknowns, despite veteran former Saigon Jokers members Trần “Archie” Minh Nhựt and Trần “Optimus” Văn Cường. They were not favored to win their group over teams like Virtus.pro and Lyon Gaming.

They took other minor regions, and later, North America’s Team SoloMid, by surprise with their superior skirmishing and early aggression. Earlier in the week, TSM only narrowly beat the Marines in a 3-2 reverse-sweep, sending the Vietnamese team into the loser’s final to face SuperMassive.

Against SuperMassive, the Marines stuck to their style, accruing early leads and never looking back. Games 1 and 4 were all Marines, and both ended in under 25 minutes.

The Marines now join TSM and Flash Wolves as the third team to qualify from the Play-In. Korea’s SK Telecom T1, China’s Team WE, and Europe’s G2 Esports had already been seeded into the main event. The next stage of the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational begins Wednesday, May 11 with G2 Esports and SK Telecom T1.

Emily Rand’s love of the 2013 KT Rolster Bullets will never die. You can follow her on Twitter.