by The 2022 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) is scheduled to commence on May 10, 2022, and all systems are a go.
Sometime last week, only eight of the 11 participants had qualified for the competition. But as of the time of writing, all teams representing the 11 individual Riot league’s spring splits have been revealed.
The LoL Mid-Season Invitational, which will be held in Busan, South Korea, has already split the participating teams into three different groups which will follow a double round-robin format.
Busan Esports Area will host the group stage, while the rumble and knockout stages will take place at Busan Exhibition & Convention Center.
While all teams will go home with a piece of the $250,000 prize pool, the first-placed team will walk away with 30% ($75,000) of the prize pool.
What teams will be competing in the 2022 LOL MSI?
Korea T1 was the first team to seal their qualification to the 2022 LoL MSI. It was an outrightly dominating run for T1 in the split, as they went undefeated throughout the competition.
They had an 18-0 run in the group stage and gave up only one map in the playoffs against Gen.G Esports in the Finals. The three-time world champions became the first team to not lose a single series during a split in LCK history.
T1 also set a new record for the longest unbeaten streak, a record they once held (14-0). It will be interesting to see if they maintain their form in the MSI.
North America Evil Geniuses is the latest team to qualify for the 2022 MSI, following their 3-0 sweep against 100 Thieves. Despite being the underdogs and going through the playoffs in the Lower Bracket, they put together a rock-solid performance in every outing, losing only one map through their three lower bracket games to the Grand Final.
G2 Esports will be representing Europe after sweeping Rouge in the LEC Grand Finals, while DetonatioN FocusMe will represent the Japan League.
Other participants include TCL’s Istanbul Wildcats, LCO’s ORDER, PCS’ PS Talon, CBLOL’s Red Canids, and VCS’ Saigon Buffalo.
The final team that will be participating in the MSI is China’s Royal Never Give Up. They successfully defeated Top Esports after a riveting 3-2 Grand Final.
However, due to travel restrictions in China as a result of the pending COVID-19 issues, RNG will not be present at the offline event. Fortunately, Riot Games have devised a means to have the team participate from their home country.
They made the announcement through their official page. While the team will be competing remotely, there are also measures put in place to ensure health and safety protocols are upheld.
To guarantee fair play, Riot will use a network latency tool, one which was used during the LPL vs LCK Showdown during the 2020 Mid-Season Cup. With this initiative, teams will not miss a chance at competing for reasons that they have no control over.
The same happened to Vietnam’s GAM Esports in 2021, resulting in a forfeiture because they could not make the trip to Reykjavik to compete physically.
