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MSI 2017 Play-In Draw Guide

Riot·4/12/2017, 4:58:10 PM·4 votes·22,195 views

Your guide to the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational Play-In Draw. 

As we crown new split champions around the globe, the 10 teams who will face-off in the Play-In Stage of the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) are being locked. To determine the groups for the Play-In Stage, we’ll be hosting a Play-In Draw Show on April 19 at 4:00 PM PT.

What is the Play-In Stage?

As we previously announced, the Play-In Stage is a new stage of the tournament and will be played before the Group Stage. The Play-In Stage consists of three rounds with 10 regional teams including:

  • CBLOL’s Red Canids - Brazil (BR)
  • LCL’s Virtus.pro - Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
  • LJL’s Rampage - Japan (JPN)
  • LLN's Lyon Gaming - Latin America North (LAN)
  • CLS’s Isurus Gaming - Latin America South (LAS)
  • TBD (NA LCS Finals on 4/23) - North America (NA) - Round 1 bye, starts in Round 2
  • OPL's Dire Wolves - Oceania (OCE)
  • GPL's Gigabyte Marines - Southeast Asia (SEA)
  • TBD (LMS Finals on 4/23) - Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau (LMS) - Round 1 bye, starts in Round 2
  • TBD (TCL Finals on 4/22) - Turkey (TUR)

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Round 1 takes place on April 28-May 1 with each day featuring six games from one of the two groups.

The winners of each group in Round 1 advance to Round 2 and randomly be paired against NA or LMS. Round 2 takes place on May 3-4 and the winners of Round 2 advance to the next stage of the tournament, the Group Stage.

The losers of Round 2 will face-off in Round 3 on May 6 for the final spot at Groups.

What is the Play-In Draw?

As noted in the above graphic, the eight teams are randomly sorted into two groups. The Play-In Draw is how we randomly sort the two groups for the eight participating region for the Play-In Stage, Round 1. Play-In Draw Show takes place live on Wednesday, April 19 at 4:00 PM PT.  

During the Play-In Draw Show, the on-air team will explain the teams and breakdown the process as it happens live.

How does Play-In Draw work?

Eight teams will be sorted into two pools based on past regional performance for the Play-In Stage, Round 1. As with MSI 2017 seeding, we’ll be using the last two years of competitive results where all Round 1 regions participated including IWCI 2015, IWCI 2016, and IWCQ 2016. Because IWCQ 2015 took place as two separate tournaments and not all eight regions participated at the same event together, those competitive results were not counted.

When determining seeding for the Play-In Draw, we relied on principles similar to the ones used for overall MSI 2017 seeding:

  • We prioritize events that qualified for Worlds over MSI (as Worlds is the most important tournament of the year) - in this case, IWCQ 2016
  • We prioritized recent results over older results as a better indicator of current strength - IWCI 2016 and IWCQ 2016.
  • We evaluated tournament results by the stage achieved, regardless of opponent or game record.

Here’s the Play-In Draw seeding results:

  • Pool 1: Brazil, Commonwealth of Independent States, Turkey, and Southeast Asia
  • Pool 2: Japan, Latin America North, Latin America South, and Oceania

It’s important to remember that exactly two teams from each of the pools will be sorted into each group.

The draw process will start by drawing one team from Pool 1 into Group A. Then, we’ll draw one team from Pool 1 into Group B. We’ll switch to Pool 2 and repeat the process with Pool 2 - The first team drawn from Pool 2 will go to Group A and the second team will go to Group B  Finally, we’ll repeat this entire process again for the remaining four teams.

Why does the Play-In matter?

The top three teams from the Play-In Stage will advance to the Group Stage in Rio de Janeiro on May 10-14. The recently crowned split champions from China, Europe, and Korea will join these teams for the Group Stage. As we previously announced, the Group Stage schedule will be confirmed immediately after the Play-In Stage.

How do I watch?

Watch the live MSI 2017 Play-In Draw Show on Lolesports on April 19 at 4:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM BRT.

Don’t miss any of the MSI 2017 action starting with the Play-In Stage on on Friday, April 28 at 11:00 AM PT.

 

Chris “Grza” Greeley is one of our League Operations Leads. He leads a team focused on supporting the operations of NA LCS and international events. He is not the former congressional representative from Maine, but he is an ex(ish)-lawyer from New York City. He channeled years of raiding on his Resto Druid into life in the bottom lane dropping wards and shooting gliterlances. You can find him on Twitter as @IAmGrza.

 

37 Comments

Gramm4/12/2017, 5:47:51 PM11 votes

good way to include more regions in the international scene and expand their fanbases, definitely a step in the right direction

Tolkmit4/12/2017, 8:12:52 PM5 votes

How long has it been since an EU team beat an NA team at MSI or Worlds? Over a year at least. How does it make any sense that the random group draw at worlds, which determines how far you go as much as anything else, determines MSI status instead of actual competitive play?

geobiz4/12/2017, 10:54:14 PM3 votes

Personally I feel this set up is garbage and could have thought of something better within 5 minutes. The fact that LMS and NA have to play their way in is laughable. As someone who has been watching for four years and has seen every region strive at some point, this is just a head scratcher #mustbeaboutthemoney

TrollFan014/12/2017, 7:33:27 PM2 votes

NA & LMS are gping to advance. They're too good not to against IWC teams in BO5s.

In the loser brackets is where things will heat up.

Debtlesscandy4/12/2017, 8:00:30 PM2 votes

Why do NA and LMS have to fight to get into MSI?

Spoo4/19/2017, 5:30:43 PM1 votes

If they're going to do something like this, I'd rather them use a point accumulation system for each region than some oddball metric. While I understand what's happening in this system it seems like a totally arbitrary system (kind of like the coaches poll in NCAA) to a point. I would rather have some hardline metric we could use to prepare this then some arbitrary one, at least for Clarity's sake. Isn't Rito all about clarity?

Bovine Ghoti4/13/2017, 8:24:25 PM1 votes

How did Rito Manage to make something more complicated than the EU 2017 Spring Split?

Espy Psyche4/16/2017, 12:52:13 PM1 votes

Since 2015:

NA -- 5th at 2015 MSI 0 top 8 teams at 2015 Worlds 2nd at 2016 MSI ** 1 top 8 team at 2016 Worlds

EU -- 3rd at 2015 MSI ** 2 top 8 teams at 2015 Worlds (2 top 4) ** 5th at 2016 MSI 1 top 8 team at 2016 Worlds (1 top 4) **

Despite the failings of 2016 EU, TSM and CLG didn't do significantly better than G2 and Splyce at Worlds. Yes, TSM and CLG placed third in groups while G2 and Splyce placed fourth, but none of the above made it out of groups, so a third place is the same as a fourth as far as the rankings. Even if Origen's performance is omitted because they got relegated, EU would have 1 top 4 team at 2015 Worlds (Fnatic, who is still very much alive in EU LCS). The EU team at MSI in 2015 was Fnatic, not Origen.

The Joyous Queen4/16/2017, 8:28:31 PM1 votes

IDK why the teams that "play-in" are determined by some weird, lifetime value criteria. Why not just directly base this on either MSI or worlds? It isn't more fair to reward slumping regions (like EU) than to play in for next MSI this MSI and so on. IN fact, the team that puts EU in was just relegated from the EU LCS...it's just a head scratcher.

Dankiskhan1274/17/2017, 12:34:11 AM1 votes

where is albus nox?