Mid-Season Invitational
Mid-Season Invitational is an annual League of Legends tournament, happening between the Spring and Summer splits of all regions. The Spring Split champions of each LoL Region compete for the MSI trophy and an extra team slot for their region at LoL Worlds.
The first Mid-Season Invitational was held in 2015 in Tallahassee, Florida. The event featured the champions of the five main LoL regions and one extra team from the International Wildcard event. Edward Gaming were crowned the first ever Mid-Season Invitational Champions. Since then, four different teams earned the MSI trophy, with SKT T1 as the only team holding a back-to-back crown.
In 2021, the Mid-Season Invitational features 12 teams, and the winners of every region in the LoL Esports ecosystem.
When is MSI LoL 2021?
Mid-Season Invitational 2021 starts on the 6th of May 2021 and ends on the 23rd of May 2021. Reykjavík, Iceland was chosen as the LoL MSI 2021 location. All three stages of the event are played at the Laugardalshöll arena in less then three weeks of competition.
Due to the ongoing global pandemic MSI 2021 tickets will not be available. All teams will play their matches in “bubble” system protected from outside contact. You can still watch MSI live and earn MSI drops and in-game rewards.
Watch MSI LoL Live:
MSI 2021 Teams
All the MSI 2021 teams are champions in their home regions. The twelve champions and their region in LoL Spring Split 2021 are:
- MAD Lions, LEC
- Cloud9, LCS
- DWG KIA, LCK
- Royal Never Give Up, LPL
- PaiN Gaming, CBLOL
- PSG Talon, PCS
- Pentanet.GG, LCO
- DetonatioN FocusMe, LJL
- Unicorns of Love, LCL
- Infinity Esports, LLA
- FastPay Wildcats (Istanbul Wildcats), TCL
- GAM Esports, VCS
Read our MSI Rankings to find which MSI 2021 teams are the favorites in this years’ competition.
MSI 2021 Format
The Mid-Season Invitational currently consists of three stages of competition: Group Stage, Rumble and Knockout.
All 12 teams participate in the first Group Stage, divided into three groups based on seeding. All groups are set to play a double round robin format with the top two teams advancing to the Rumble Stage, while the rest of the teams are eliminated.
*Due to Vietnamese team GAM Esports cancelling their attendance, Group A will play a quadruple round robin format instead.
Rumble Stage also features a double round robin group between the best six teams from the Group Stage. The top four teams will advance to the Knockout stage while the bottom two teams are eliminated. Finally, the Knockout Stage is a single elimination best-of-five bracket between the four remaining teams.
The initial MSI Groups were divided as follows:
© LoL Esports
MSI 2021 Rumble Stage
The rumble stage is the 2nd portion of the event, featuring 6 out of the 11 teams in attendance. The teams are set to battle in a double-round robin format with the top four advancing to the final Knockout Stage of the event. You can read our Overview and Expectations MSI Rumble Stage Games here.
MSI Schedule
The group stages schedule at Mid-Season Invitational has already been set and all the matches are set to be played between 6-11 of May. Here’s a breakdown of all matchups.
| May 14th | May 15th | May 16th | May 17th | May 18th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DK vs RNG | PGG vs RNG | C9 vs PGG | PSG vs RNG | RNG vs DK |
| MAD vs PGG | DK vs C9 | RNG vs PSG | MAD vs DK | PGG vs PSG |
| PSG vs DK | MAD vs RNG | DK vs MAD | C9 vs RNG | RNG vs MAD |
| RNG vs C9 | C9 vs PSG | RNG vs PGG | PGG vs MAD | PSG vs c9 |
| PSG vs PGG | PGG vs DK | C9 vs DK | DK vs PSG | DK vs PGG |
| C9 vs MAD | MAD vs PSG | PSG vs MAD | PGG vs C9 | MAD vs C9 |
All matches begin at 15:00 CET (13:00 UTC, 06:00 PT, 21:00 BJT). MSI LoL odds are already widely available for the opening matches.
Mid-Season Invitational Winners
The five MSI winners thus far were:
- 2015 – Edward Gaming
- 2016 – SK Telecom T1
- 2017 – SK Telecom T1
- 2018 – Royal Never Give Up
- 2019 – G2 Esports
- 2020 –
Cancelled - 2021 – TBA
Mid-Season Invitational History
The MSI History started in 2015, with the tournament evolving with each consecutive iteration. The prize money, host destinations, competing teams and ruleset are constantly adapted and tweaked as the tournament grew in size and scope. Initially the LoL esports system consisted of major and minor regions with the main regions automatically participating in the MSI Group Stage, while the minor regions had to play through a Play-Ins event. Starting in 2021, all regions are on equal grounds and they are seeded based on their regions past performance in international League of Legends events.
2015 Mid-Season Invitational
MSI 2015 was the first event of its type organized by Riot Games. It was hosted in Florida, USA between 7–10 May 2015. The event featured 12 participating regions, with LPL, LCK, EULCS, NALCS and LMS automatically seeded into the main event. The remaining 7 teams played a separate International Wildcard Invitational event in Turkey to determine the final 6th participant at MSI 2015. The winner of the Wildcard event was the TCL champion Beşiktaş Esports.
EDward Gaming defeated SKT T1 3:2 in the final to claim the first ever MSI trophy.
2016 Mid-Season Invitational
MSI 2016 was hosted in China, between 4-16 May 2016. The event featured 13 participating regions, with LPL, LCK, EULCS, NALCS and LMS automatically seeded into the main event. The remaining 8 teams played a separate 2016 International Wildcard Invitational event in Mexico to determine the final 6th participant at MSI 2016. The winner of the Wildcard event was the TCL champion SuperMassive eSports.
SKT T1 defeated Counter Logic Gaming 3:0 to claim the trophy and $1,000,000 in prize money. This event was the first one to feature MSI betting at a large scale, with the final being one of the most “bet on” matches to date.
2017 Mid-Season Invitational
MSI 2017 was hosted in Brazil between April 28-May 21 2017. The event featured 13 participating regions, with the LPL, LCK and EULCS automatically seeded into the main event. The remaining ten teams played through a play-in stage to determine the three participants heading into the Main Event stage.
SKT T1 defeated G2 Esports 3:1 in the final. This event marked the first time a team successfully completing a back-to-back championship run at the Mid-Season Invitational.
2018 Mid-Season Invitational
MSI 2019 was hosted in Germany and France between 3-20 May 2018. The event featured 14 participating regions, with the LPL, LCK, EU LCS and NA LCS automatically seeded into the main event. The remaining ten teams played through a play-in stage to determine the two participants heading into the Main Event stage.
Royal Never Give Up defeated Kingzone DragonX 3:1 in the final. It marked the first time an LCK team lost a major event at the hands of a non-LCK team in over three years.
2019 Mid-Season Invitational
MSI 2019 was hosted in Vietnam and Taiwan between 1-19 May 2019. The event featured 13 participating regions, with the LPL, LEC and LCK automatically seeded into the main event. The remaining ten teams played through a play-in stage to determine the three participants heading into the Main Event stage.
G2 Esports defeated Team Liquid 3:0 in the MSI final, in the fastest international event series to date. G2 is currently the reigning MSI champion.
