Defy the expectations: this year’s Mid-Season Invitational (MSI 2023) is going to be nothing like ever before. Here’s everything you need to know about the first international tournament of the 2023 League of Legends season.
Image Credits | Riot Games
MSI will take place from May 2 to May 21. The tournament implemented a major format change this season, increasing the number of teams from 11 to 13, including the top two teams from each major regions (LEC, LCS, LCK, and LPL), and five teams from wild card regions (PCS, VCS, LJL, CBLOL, and LLA).
The play-in stage took place from May 2 to May 7, to determine the teams which will be going to the bracket stage. Eight teams competed in two groups of four in Bo3 matches.
The winner of each group advances, with the last team being decided in the Last Chance Qualifier, featuring the winners of the losers’ bracket. Matches will start at 2 p.m. CET on weekdays and 1 p.m. CET on weekends. The entirety of MSI will be played on Patch 13.8.
MSI draw results for the play-in stage
Image Credits | Riot Games
May 2
May 3
May 4
Bilibili Gaming and G2 Esports qualify for the MSI 2023 bracket stage.
May 5
GAM Esports and DetonatioN FocusMe have been eliminated.
May 6
Movistar R7 and LOUD have been eliminated.
May 7
Golden Guardians qualifies for the Bracket stage. PSG Talon have been eliminated.
The MSI 2023 playoffs will take place from May 9 to May 14 and May 16 to May 21. Matches will start at 2 pm CET on weekdays and 1 pm CET on weekends and are all Bo5.
Image Credits | Riot Games
May 9
Gen.G moves onto the upper bracket quarterfinals.
G2 Esports will go to Round 1 of the lower bracket.
May 10
T1 moves onto the upper bracket quarterfinals – the team will be facing Gen.G in the LCK Spring Finals rematch.
MAD Lions instead will drop to Round 1 of the lower bracket and will go against G2 to determine which EU will advance.
May 11
BLG moves onto the next round of the upper bracket – the team will be facing the winner between JD Gaming and Golden Guardians.
Cloud9 will have to wait for the loser of that same matchup in the lower bracket.
May 12
JDG dominate Golden Guardians and will move moves to the next round of the upper bracket – the team will be facing the other LPL team BLG. GG will instead face C9 to determine which NA team survives.
May 13 — Upper bracket quarterfinals and Lower bracket Round 1
Gen.G will be relegated to the losers’ bracket, facing Cloud9 in the losers’ bracket. MAD Lions are eliminated from the tournament.
May 14
BLG will be going to the lower bracket and playing against G2 Esports to see who advances. Golden Guardians, after losing to C9, are eliminated. JDG, instead, will face T1 in the winners’ bracket final.
May 16
BLG prevailed over G2 Esports and will head to the next round as they wait for the winner between C9 and Gen.G. Unfortunately, G2 Esports are eliminated from the tournament, marking the end of European presence at MSI.
May 17
Gen.G Esports dominated Cloud9 in the losers’ bracket, knocking the last western team out of the tournament. The LCK Spring champions will face BLG in the next round.
May 18
JD Gaming come out victorious against T1 and will head to the MSI finals from the winners’ bracket. T1 will now have to go through the losers’ bracket to see whether they can get a second chance to beat the Chinese team.
May 19
BLG dominated Gen.G in surprising fashion, sending home the first LCK seed. They will now head to the losers’ bracket finals to face the other Korean team T1: the winner gets a ticket to the MSI finals against JD Gaming.
May 20
BLG have defied all expectations and will head to the MSI finals against JD Gaming. It will be the repeat match of the LPL Spring Playoffs finals. T1, on the other hand, are eliminated from contention.
May 21 — Finals
JDG took down BLG in their rematch, showing their dominance once again as the best team in the world. They will head into Summer as the team to beat, both domestically and internationally. For BLG, however, it’s still a great result, as they took down both Korean teams.
Read also: MSI Champions Queue Leaderboard - Who is No. 1?
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