Royal Never Give Up has defeated defending world champion DWG KIA to win the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational. The League of Legends Pro League representative restored glory to China in a five-game epic to conclude MSI 2021 as its champion.

After MSI 2020's cancellation due to the global COVID-19 outbreak, fans of League of Legends esports were hoping for an epic conclusion to this year's event, and both DK and RNG were happy to oblige. The series went back and forth with neither team winning consecutive games throughout the series, and the nature of the games themselves were consistently contentious. 

Game 1 was a back-and-forth slugfest with multiple kills on both sides, but at nearly 40 minutes, it was RNG who took the first win of the series off the back of AD carry Chen "GALA" Wei's signature Kai'Sa, a trend which would continue throughout the series. DWG KIA bounced back in game 2, winning in just under 30 minutes in a victory highlighted by the Xerath pick of mid laner Heo "ShowMaker" Su.

Back on blue side for game 3, RNG was able to secure Kai'Sa once again for GALA in the draft phase, and he once again delivered on the pick with a 8/0/5 performance on the Daughter of the Void to push RNG to match point. Backs against the wall, DK drafted for comfort, giving ShowMaker his Renekton and jungler Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu his signature Nidalee, with his own World Championship skin, to boot.

The comfort paid off for DWG KIA, who won the fourth game more convincingly than the second, primarily off of ShowMaker and Canyon's signature picks and a strong performance from AD carry Jang "Ghost" Yong-jun, which ended in a game-winning Pentakill.

Something must have happened to RNG after game 4, because game 5 was nothing like the others. With Gala on Kai'Sa once again, RNG came out of the gate like a demon unleashed, securing nine of the first ten kills in the game against DWG KIA and breaking an inhibitor by 21 minutes. DWG KIA was able to defend its nexus for a few more minutes admirably, but ultimately, it was a delay of the inevitable as RNG took its nexus, the series, and the MSI 2021 championship. 

GALA was named MVP of the MSI 2021 finals, and for good reason. Every single win Royal Never Give Up secured within the series featured a hard carry performance from GALA on Kai'Sa.