Mid-Season Invitational event primer

Riot·May 2, 2015·2 votes·86,259 views

The Mid-Season Invitational is a pivotal moment in the League of Legends esports scene. Residing between the Spring and Summer Splits for professional leagues across the globe, the tournament brings the very best teams from each region together for one epic weekend of matches. And from it, debates are settled, scores are settled, and we can finally say which region is able to produce the finest League of Legends team in the world. For now, at least. Are you ready to cheer on your hometown team? On May 7, 2015, six of the world's best teams head to Tallahassee, Florida, to compete for regional pride. The teams competing at MSI are:

What's the format?

MSI follows our standard event format. The tournament progresses from a Best of 1, Round Robin Group Stage to a Best of 5, Single Elimination Bracket Stage. After the 15 games of the Group Stage, and any resulting tiebreakers, the top four teams advance to the Bracket Stage. In the Bracket Stage, the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds will play in one Semifinal while the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds will play in the other. The winner of the Bracket Stage is the champion of the event.

What's on the line?

In addition to proving their region is the best in the world, and their prowess as a team, competitors will be battling for a prize pool of $200,000 USD. The third and fourth place teams will each receive $25,000 USD, while the runner-up will receive $50,000 USD and the MSI Champion will receive a prize of $100,000 USD.

When is this happening and how can I watch?

The event begins May 7 and continues through May 10. The broadcast will run for around eight hours each day.

May 7 - Group Stage - 1:00pm PDT / 22:00 CEST
May 8 - Group Stage - 1:00pm PDT / 22:00 CEST
May 9 - Semifinals - 1:00pm PDT / 22:00 CEST
May 10 - Finals - 2:00pm PDT / 23:00 CEST

Check out the schedule for game-by-game information and start times. Tickets for the live event are available at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center website. We will be giving away Samsung White and other esports championship skins (Fnatic, TPA, and SKT) to players who attend the event. Players who have purchased tickets will receive an email from Florida State University with the redemption site link, and it will be sent to the email where they purchased tickets. The email will direct players to a redemption site where they will input their ticket number. Purchase a ticket for more than one day? Good news! This offer applies to each individual ticket, so those who attend multiple days will be able to redeem multiple skins. Players will only be able to redeem their skins until May 14, after which point the redemption site will be closed.

2015 MSI Mystery Gifting

Did you watch the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational? Did you catch that Fnatic got a Baron steal against SKT on May 8th? This action triggered a Mystery Gift opportunity that now doubles your chance to unlock esports team (Fnatic, TPA, SKT), championship, and legendary skins until May 15. The SSW skins will be available in the sale once they're released on May 14. Thanks Fnatic! You can watch the event online right here on Lolesports at watch.lolesports.com. May the best region win!

165 Comments

Basket RaccoonMay 2, 201530 votes

FINALLY!!! FAKER VS BJERG

gubigubiMay 2, 201529 votes

*easyhoon vs Bjerg

AshaliMay 4, 20151 votes

I think with the one sub rule SKT will take T0M rather than easyhoon

CrüsaderKingMay 4, 20156 votes

Easyhoon is confirmed as a sub, so T0M will not be attending

TrollFan01May 2, 20157 votes

There will be a WAR in midlane! Faker can get some sweet, sweet revenge on Pawn too:D

IstoryMay 2, 20155 votes

More like Faker vs Pawn.

LastFunCheungMay 3, 20158 votes

But I'm really worry about Pawn's illness...

MrDomsMay 3, 20159 votes

TSM fanboys will be so disapointed

CerberusCorps7May 3, 201515 votes

EU fanboys will be even more disappointed. #NEVERFORGET

TSM FanboiMay 4, 20157 votes

Oh God ! I hope not.

xayahs bichMay 2, 201524 votes

1st-EDG 2nd-SKT 3rd/4th-TSM&AHQ 5th/6th-Beşiktaş/Fnatic

Come at me EU

Juri HanMay 2, 201515 votes

im more surprised that you put EDG 1st and SKT 2nd

for me it's

1st-SKT 2nd-EDG 3rd/4th-TSM&Fnatic 5th/6th-AHQ&Besiktas

also knowing TSM is bad in playing teams for the first time and beeing vulnerable to chesse, i can see Fnatic getting 3rd and TSM 4th place

either way im excited for this MSI, NA vs EU will be the shit talk festival but i don't care, may the best team win (i still think this will be TSM but anything can happen with Fnatic)

korean dogMay 2, 201511 votes

Nahh i would rank EDG ahead of SKT. The only advantage SKT have is mid lane. Everywhere else EDG has superior or equal players.

lAniimalMay 2, 20154 votes

SKT would have a better top, even mid (PawN might even be slightly better, probably is), even-ish jg (I'd say ClearLove is better), worse ADC (though Bang can be excellent sometimes) and even/ slightly better support. it's all down to the team play and map control, all of the players are pretty equal

VixanysMay 2, 20156 votes

WAIT WAIT WAIT. You are saying that Clearlove is superior to Bengi? Counselor, no more drugs for this man. Bang v Deft, I'll give you. Koro v Marin...is Marin as the superior top laner.

So Easyhoon v U is easyhoon or Easyhoon v Pawn is pretty even. Faker v U is faker. Faker v Pawn is really dependent on the the junglers.

korean dogMay 3, 20156 votes

no, you're the one that's hallucinating. Clearlove is superior to Bengi and Koro is superior to Marin lol gtfo.

VixanysMay 3, 20158 votes

I like how you ignored the rest, you must be drinking the Froskurrin koolaid for Clearlove. And Marin is going to dominate Koro.

Please no more trollorino.

xKanatiMay 4, 20151 votes

did you really just say Bang is better than Deft? You sir, who got everything else right, are very very very wrong for that. Bang gets carried by SKT, hes a supportive ad. Deft is a teamfight god. You should call him Lord Deft from now on, sir.

VixanysMay 4, 20152 votes

No I gave him the Bang v Deft. See:

Bang v Deft, I'll give you.

I told him he was on drugs for the Clearlove > Bengi or Koro v Marin.

I in no way endorsed or suggested that Bang was greater than Lord Deft.

Kappa420May 3, 20155 votes

TSM > Fnc TSM is the stronger team in general FNC went 3-2 against UOL, and they can play against new teams they fixed that (ex. YFW, WE)

KrypticSoul666May 2, 201519 votes

1st- TSM 2nd- SKT 3rd/4th - EDG/AHQ 5th/6th - Beşiktaş/Fnatic

Leggo!

LostInThaSauceMay 2, 201527 votes

Maybe you should prepare to wipe away the tears of crushing defeat, I like NA as much as the next dude but you're fcking stoned if you think TSM will be first.

GonanMay 2, 201515 votes

TSM won first for IEM Katawice.

T RexHasLongLegsMay 2, 20153 votes

Yeah, and WE turned around hard core w/ the new roster so it wasn't just that they beat the worst team in china. However, let's be honest, WE doesn't hold a candle to EDG. As for GE Tigers they are a solid team, but SKT seems to have found some more consistency and some strength in this meta, so they are probably miles ahead of where GE Tigers were at Katawice in terms of strength. There are definitely going to be some great games, but TSM will have to get extremely lucky and play the best they have all season if they stand a chance to take the whole thing.

Kappa420May 3, 20151 votes

No one would need to be stoned to guess TSM, every team has an equal chance except the wildcards you would have to be stoned to get an advantage to teams that haven't played a in a LONG time/never. Every team but the wildcard has a chance at finals. upsets can and will happen TL;DR Any team can win (highly unlikely the wildcard team) don't down vote peoples hopes :/

LostInThaSauceJul 23, 20151 votes

Lol.....I just saw your reply. Sorry bro RIP TSM

GonanMay 2, 201516 votes

EDG TSM Fnatic AhQ Besiktas

VixanysMay 2, 201538 votes

Sorry your list started at second. I fixed it

SKT EDG TSM Fnatic AhQ Besiktas

kujiesarMay 2, 201510 votes

Agreed, although ill be rooting TSM all the way. I'm really interested to see what happens when TSM and Fnatic face off, you know with the whole "NA vs. EU" deal, especially if they end up playing a best of 5 in the bracket stage. TSM, bring home some glory for NA please :)

VixanysMay 3, 20154 votes

I'm all for NA pride, but just the level of competition in the regions I think NA will win a very close Bo5. :3

xKanatiMay 4, 20156 votes

TSM is gonna crush fnatic. EU is really sloppy this season

captaindestroyerMay 10, 20153 votes

Or just not make it out of groups

AFK SamMay 12, 20151 votes

they certainly did

xKanatiMay 4, 20156 votes

he started at second cause we all already know who is taking first lol

SetMeFreeFTWMay 6, 2015

you wish

VixanysMay 6, 20153 votes

Why would I need to wish? He didn't put SKT on the list so obviously he started from second place down because he knew SKT had it in the bag.

Unless you seriously believe that NA/EU/LMS/Wildcard will beat SKT.

n1cole13May 7, 20152 votes

well played my friend, well played.

Sleepydog456May 10, 20151 votes

i agree

ahsayaMay 2, 201513 votes

Doesn't matter who's first EU will be last

andingMay 2, 20156 votes

based on what exactly? last year's worlds or iem? previous results mean nothing. what matters is how each team performs at the event

im CrisMay 2, 201514 votes

But according to EU fanboys around the world, winning season 1 "worlds" automatically means EU is better than NA..

T RexHasLongLegsMay 2, 201510 votes

So what games are y'all looking forward to?

Tops for me would be, in order:

EDG vs SKT (Pawn vs Faker, hell yeah!)

TSM vs Fnatic (EU vs NA bragging rights!)

AHQ vs Everyone (Curious to see how LMS stacks up internationally)

TSM vs SKT (I think EDG is probably gonna win it all and be strongest by a good deal, but I'm really hoping NA can keep up w/ Korea and maybe be second strongest region.)

What are your thoughts? What did I overlook?

XanixielMay 2, 20156 votes

"In the Bracket Stage, the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds will play in one Semifinal while the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds will play in the other. The winner of the Bracket Stage is the champion of the event."

Just to add, the winner of the semi-final match between teams no. 1 and no. 4 (Bo5) will meet the winner of the semi-final match between teams no. 2 and no. 3 (Bo5) for the finals in a Bo5 format as well. Winner of that match will be crowned 2015 MSI champion. No match for 3rd place will occur.

Am I right?

Verita and FalsoMay 2, 20155 votes

what do U guys mean by saying EDG or TSM will win the series? I am a fan of Cloud 9, but you have to admit that SKT is gonna win the series. They had two sub players for LCK final and won 3:0

Verita and FalsoMay 2, 20154 votes

U guys have to remember that SKT didn't lose a game in last year's all star

Sycksh1tMay 2, 20155 votes

O wow really? Was that before or after they didn't even make it to worlds? What midlaner was it that stomped faker last year? What 3 teams were better then skt in kr last year? Hmm that midlaner I think his name is Pawn? Oo yea hes the guy on EDG now..Durka...Durka

korean dogMay 3, 20152 votes

EDG will win MSI. Its about time the Korean decline begins.

VixanysMay 3, 20158 votes

Korean decline (promotes a Chinese team with 2 Korean World champions). Must be a troll.