Celebrate MSI 2019

Riot·Apr 25, 2019·0 votes·35,704 views

MSI 2019 kicks off on May 1st. If you're new to MSI, head to the tournament overview for details on the competition. Otherwise, we're here to talk about a bunch of ways you can celebrate the event and the teams competing for the trophy!

Conqueror Alistar

This year's MSI skin is Conqueror Alistar, available for 975 RP between 05/02/2019 @13:00 PDT and 06/11/2019 @11:00 PDT. He'll also be available in bundle form during the same window with a fancy loading screen border and the MSI 2019 ward for 1845 RP (2137 if you need Alistar).

25% of revenue from Conqueror Alistar and his bundle will go toward the teams competing at MSI.

Team Icons

Icons for the MSI competitor teams will be available between 05/02/2019 @ 13:00 PDT and 06/11/2019 @ 11:00 PDT! 50% of revenue from these icons will go to their respective teams.

These are the new team icons we introduced at the beginning of spring split. As a reminder, we removed the year from these icons so you don't have to purchase a new one season. Except for relegations, promotions, and team logo changes, these same icons will return to the store each split and event a team participates in!

Map Accents

We're decking the Rift out with MSI flair. Be on the lookout for the return of base banners and Conqueror Baron!

We've also added a new trophy pedestal to top lane. Once this year's MSI winner is crowned, their team's trophy will show up on the pedestal for the month after MSI ends.

This year's offerings come with a couple changes to how we're celebrating fandom. Let us know what you think and share your ideas for other stuff you'd love to see in the future!

42 Comments

StexeApr 25, 201924 votes

More "spend extra RP to get loading screen border" stuff. Remember when it was actually for people who just liked the stuff and bought it early? Not had to spend extra money for it?

DragoniteDDApr 25, 201911 votes

I upvoted ur post, but also want to point out that we do have more access to loots now compared to before. However I still hate to pay 890RP more to get the signature... making the cost of each skin almost Mystic tier, more expensive than legendary skins... Which is a bit too much imo

GamingEelektrossApr 25, 20192 votes

Im almost entirely certain that the Ali border is also going to be part of the MSI loot, but there's also the four other borders and all five gold chromas, as well as whatever extra loot you may fancy.

Its a dumb system, but thats small indie company for you. [zombie-brand-clap]

adept eagleMay 15, 20191 votes

So I agree with what you said but i believe you need to do alot more research. Riot isn't small, dumb, or an indie company. Its massive all around the world. Very smart because they are able to please millions of fans with the loot system and still make money. And on top of that their based in LA California. But the main reason they have this system is to balance making fines happy and still gaining profit in order to host all the events year round on a free to play game and pay their employees.

BlackTecnoApr 26, 20191 votes

I think in this case it's mostly because a portion of the funds are going to the prize pool. Don't get me wrong, I'm not paying that, but I'd feel like buying it more if 50-75% of the funds went to the prize pool, not a mere 25% (or 100% of the 870RP extra funds for the ward and border).

How Do You MetaApr 25, 20193 votes

Actually I don't remember borders being available for buying stuff early for free. The first borders were project skins and we could only get them by paying full price before they went on sale. Most skin borders were from buying skins at full price instead of a sale price. In a sense you did pay extra for the borders because you chose to pay the full value instead of a sale price so they had something attached to it.

Now Riot said "screw it, we don't want to give an early sale anymore, now you pay extra" and charges us extra for the amount the sales prices used to take off for early purchases and add it to the total.

StexeApr 26, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=How Do You Meta,realm=NA,application-id=Ag8jgd8Q,discussion-id=wr7R4QAW,comment-id=00030001,timestamp=2019-04-25T23:55:50.350+0000)

Actually I don't remember borders being available for buying stuff early for free. The first borders were project skins and we could only get them by paying full price before they went on sale. Most skin borders were from buying skins at full price instead of a sale price. In a sense you did pay extra for the borders because you chose to pay the full value instead of a sale price so they had something attached to it.

Now Riot said "screw it, we don't want to give an early sale anymore, now you pay extra" and charges us extra for the amount the sales prices used to take off for early purchases and add it to the total.

Uh... no. Paying "full price instead of waiting for a sale a long time later" is not the same as "paying extra" at all.

StexeApr 26, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=How Do You Meta,realm=NA,application-id=Ag8jgd8Q,discussion-id=wr7R4QAW,comment-id=00030001,timestamp=2019-04-25T23:55:50.350+0000)

Actually I don't remember borders being available for buying stuff early for free. The first borders were project skins and we could only get them by paying full price before they went on sale. Most skin borders were from buying skins at full price instead of a sale price. In a sense you did pay extra for the borders because you chose to pay the full value instead of a sale price so they had something attached to it.

Now Riot said "screw it, we don't want to give an early sale anymore, now you pay extra" and charges us extra for the amount the sales prices used to take off for early purchases and add it to the total.

Oh, and the first borders weren't from PROJECT skins. They were from Limited Edition skins being brought back. The nearly invisible watermark "compensation" for screwing over buyers.

CansemaApr 26, 20191 votes

add it to the list how The senior management just decided one day to not to what they promised. To prove some point they do this more often than i care to keep track of anymore. When they stop their shallow promise making will be the actual surprise.

StexeApr 27, 20192 votes

{quoted}

add it to the list how The senior management just decided one day to not to what they promised. To prove some point they do this more often than i care to keep track of anymore. When they stop their shallow promise making will be the actual surprise.

Oh, I've made a huge list of promises that were never fulfilled and other promises that were blatant lies with the opposite being true. I've sent it to Riot and their Player Support, but they "don't have the means to escalate it to the proper channels who can make any action." And when I bring it up, despite following all the rules on the reddit subforum, the mods delete it with no reason and will not explain why. HUZZAH! ... =/

L9EchoApr 30, 20192 votes

Bro we have an entire game of life 150 + champs for FREE to play and you're upset about cosmetic prices? This is how they make money from this game. They can milk it as much as they want. Skins are a luxury, and ESPECIALLY since this is something that goes towards funding a tournament.

StexeApr 30, 20194 votes

{quoted}

Bro we have an entire game of life 150 + champs for FREE to play and you're upset about cosmetic prices? This is how they make money from this game. They can milk it as much as they want. Skins are a luxury, and ESPECIALLY since this is something that goes towards funding a tournament.

"It is free to play so that justifies any price for cosmetic" is not a valid argument. Same saying "but some of the money goes to a tournament prize pool!" Predatory marketing practices that prey off of people is not an acceptable way to get money. Study the actual psychological effect of these marketing schemes. Read up on them more. Here's a good discussion on it at reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/af8642/the_psychological_manipulation_of_prestige_aatrox/

ldentityApr 25, 20193 votes

Giving us access to the same accents we'll see on SR while watching teams perform at MSI... Great stuff, Riot. As a longtime Esports watcher, I approve!

Cherry TsundereApr 25, 20193 votes

why do u guys want money so badly?

CalideApr 25, 20197 votes

Because it's a business and the point is to make money? Did you think this was a charity or something?

OleandervineApr 25, 20192 votes

Rito, whoever's in control of your website has been dropping the ball HARDCORE this week. Yet another dead link.

ModDaenrysTargaryenApr 25, 20193 votes

{quoted}

Rito, whoever's in control of your website has been dropping the ball HARDCORE this week. Yet another dead link.

Link is fine for me.

OleandervineApr 25, 20192 votes

Really? Cause I get Error 404 This Page Does Not Exist.

Edit: Now it works.

CalideApr 25, 20193 votes

If you refresh or use a different browser, a lot of times that'll fix it.

xox BaByDoLL xoxMay 2, 20192 votes

WHERE ARE THE ESPORT SKINS?????????????????????????????????????????????? The old esport skins always unlock for MSI, are you seriously telling me that as soon as I start playing the game you guys decide to no longer unlock the old esport skins for MSI???? COME ON MAN!!!!!!!!! [sg-janna] [cass-cry] [sg-janna]

LuxannaVeritasApr 25, 20191 votes

Wait, I saw a theory that the new Houses log-in screen on the PBE was supposed to be for MSI. I was highly skeptical of this, tbh, and looks like I was right; it wasn't listed at all here.

So that begs the question... what exactly is the Houses login screen for?

In other news, great content as always; I'll be sure to keep up with MSI this year as usual.

DragoniteDDApr 25, 20191 votes

trophy pedestal at top lane. yeah, you know exactly which lane is the meta carry lane ad has been irrelevant for ~8 months (they can still feed though, but cant carry)

Griffin350Apr 25, 20193 votes

You're actually out of your mind if you think bot lane is bad. Bot lane has been in a good spot ever since the item reverts. Not to mention that it's nobody else's fault but yours if you can only play marksman instead of what's meta in the lane.

DragoniteDDApr 25, 20192 votes

I said ad, not bot lane, your comments are actually supporting my point of view instead of against it LMAO.

I am not an ad player so I am just here to say some fair words, not to defend my role. Those assumptions weak the logic in your arguments even more.

What I said is particularly true for high level games, especially in pro plays.

DeathBecomesU2Apr 30, 20191 votes

Heartening to realize that you aren't even a bot player. Empathy is becoming a precious commodity. Kudos, sir.

DragoniteDDApr 30, 20191 votes

I am multi-season diamond support player and I know what happened to ad roles in great detail through the metas since S7. Don't want to mention this but since you started it -------- As a Bronze 1 ad, how would you believe that you know bot lane better than me?

LegãcyApr 26, 20194 votes

Also it is true Riot really did revert the items, but I'm not sure if you noticed, but they lowered the Critical Chance on item 3094 , item 3087 , item 3085 , and item 3046 , and lowered the attack speed a ton. Back then, Crit items used to give 40%-50% attack speed which, for an example, helped Jhin out a ton. Now with attack speed items being 30%-40% Attack speed, it is really hard to get that "orb walking" feeling when you can never always take Alacrity in your precision rune page due to lack of life steal in your later build. See the issue is, in my opinion, a typical ADC build would go like this (when people actually picked tanks and whatnot). item 3006 item 3094 item 3031 item 3087 item 3036 item 3026 , but that would mean you have to take bloodline in your rune page which sacrifices your early game attack speed. Additionally, to the nerfs on sorcery (Absolute Focus and Celerity) marksmen take Inspiration or Domination meaning you essentially will not even be able to get your boots early on due to Magical Footwear, or if you take Domination, you sacrifice the biscuits for sustain. Overall, I would not say that ADCs are struggling, but I say that there is not a lot of options when it comes to picking an ADC to play, for so many of them are out of meta it's difficult to play ADC in this Bruiser meta.

SpooApr 26, 20191 votes

Somebody has to be last. And for NA and Doublelift's sake I'm glad Jhin is on the bottom.

All this, yet, Varus, Ashe, Vayne are still within the top 7. And this is counting all the weird Taric games and the OP Ezreal skewed games.

https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/builds/adc/lcs

DeathBecomesU2Apr 30, 20191 votes

He's saying bot lane attack damage marksmen are bad and you confirmed it so I guess that makes you crazy too. I was just wondering...where are true marksmen to be played now? Should they be played at all if they are so weak? Should they be removed from the game so as to not be a distraction in picks and bans?

That's quite a few champs, although most are cookie cutters, especially with the few core items you can't deviate from except for 1, maybe 2 slots, if you're feeling frisky, because ad base scaling is pure crap. You scale with that boring item set. I think not necessarily all champs, but certainly all roles should should be allowed to play the game effectively and contribute to the outcome in a satisfying manner in any meta and any season . Your thoughts.

LegãcyApr 26, 20192 votes

I agree, however, it is not just top lane. It is the types of champions in the top lane/jungle to be exact. Looking at Hecarim and RekSai with the 2 highest ban rates for 2 patches now, and for some reason, they have not been nerfed at all. Continuing on, Bruisers have been very oppressive for many patches even after ADC items have been reverted (when they really shouldn't have been changed honestly) due to high mobility, item 3053 , and overall high damage. Riven is also really strong this patch, but worse of all, Conqueror has been favoring bruisers exclusively for a very long time. Even when Conqueror was changed, the literally second marksmen/DPS mages took Conqueror, the rune was changed to favor Melees more. Personally, I feel like there are a lot of strong champions wreaking havoc in solo queue right now due to their 1v9 potential, but I can also see why they haven't been nerfed, for which it means there are too many strong champions to nerf. In my opinion (and sorry if I'm wrong or you disagree)I feel like Vladimir , Riven , Hecarim , and RekSai are these champions that are really tearing through the balance in solo queue. Honestly, there are more champions I personally feel like should be nerfed, but for the sake of this forums, I'm only listing some that others will agree with rather than flame me for just being bad.

DeathBecomesU2Apr 30, 20191 votes

They can bait too! ADC can still do damage, can still get kills, but has never felt like it had less effect on the outcome of the game unless you feed. A typical over-tuned bruiser that is waaay behind can ruin your day. They don't have to be good players. Hi, Yi, you adorable little perennial rito lapdog! 0-10, still need to blow all of your team cc on him b4 he ults and runs away a few inches to heal, if he feels like he needs to run away while he's 1v5 your team.

You need a melee with a gap closer (it doesn't need to be a traditional bruiser) on your team and you better hope they play better than the other team's melees with gap closers. I understand that going toe-toe with a melee of the same level and income, you should lose if you aren't utilizing your range advantage (where it might exist), but it's ridiculous when an under-performing melee can obliterate a massively fed adc out of the fog of war with a gap closer, a buffed auto, a stun, another buffed auto or two and an ability or two in the next split second, if necessary. Needing 2 rounds would be too much, but changes have to be made. There has to be some reasonable counter-play like we had in the past... and that is that if the opposing adc is 30-2, there is no way anybody on your team should be able to even look at them without being obliterated. Being ahead might mean something for other roles, but it is meaningless to the current adc role. It may simply be that the "come from behind" mechanism has had a disastrous effect on adc role in particular in a meta where burst damage and cc are king.

It's too bad. I used to like the pew-pew role, but lately, if I have a melee bruiser in bot lane as support, I'll just funnel farm to them and basically play unofficial support. My chances of winning the game are far better that way. If they choose an AP marksman with versatility, utility, and tons of damage, I know I'm screwed and I'll usually hunker down during laning phase and if I have survived the cavalcade of ganks, then I can influence, but generally not hard carry, the outcome by playing better than my counterpart in team fights, positioning, map awareness, warding, when the fact that they can't play the overall game of League as well as I can becomes apparent. Sure, I can put ADC to bed and pick up ezreal, teemo, cass, kennen, neeko, lulu, some other support that can be built to do more aa than a typical adc, bolstered by their ap scaling and superior zoning, aoe, and utility, but why should I have to? I've put years into the true marksmen. The pendulum could swing the other way, I suppose, but I'm ready for them to admit that the role is now more one-dimensional than ever, basically obsolete, and then put up an out-of-order sign until they can solve their fundamental balancing issue with them or remove them from the game. They won't do that, so we're stuck with suck. The pro teams have experimented with games without a true adc to success. Even they are so slow to take it up because bad habits die hard, but I expect to see more at MSI. I'll adjust or move on to other games. They need to be honest, though.

Sorry you got downvoted. What sounds like a gripe is just you pointing out the 800# gorilla in the room.

DragoniteDDApr 30, 20192 votes

TLDR sorry I didn't bother to read when I know you are bronze and had that keyword "30-2" in your post. You will never see that in high elo games, don't mention pro games. No offense but bronze games are extremely unbalanced and can hardly reflect meta information. It is too random to talk about meta. Players there have trouble with very basic mechanics. They are not ready to go strategic yet. It is a mechanical game for not, not a strategic one. So take some coffee and climb first. Once you can steadily (not luckily) reach high elos, you will understand what I was talking about. It is way more convincing than anything I can type. Seriously.

BTW, votes can hardly reflect correctness especially about game meta discussion. According to Riot's in game feedback, only 0.6% (will probably be more this season due to the elo boost) players are diamond and above, the majority are silvers.

Moonboy65Apr 25, 20191 votes

chromas will also be available

Bulletproof LoveApr 25, 20191 votes

is there going to be a event pass for this event? there are a bunch of golden chromas for conqueror skins and icons to go with them on surrenderat20 but it's oddly not mentioned here.

Moonboy65Apr 29, 20191 votes

yeah, weird but i'm pretty sure the event pass will be available as well

Ravens6969Apr 25, 20191 votes

How hadd is it to fo a who will own the rift video? That is what made msi 2016 so hype.

onlymdestinyApr 29, 20191 votes

So challenger series skin(challenger ahri, nidalee) and conqueror series skin(alistar, karma, varus) will be available during MSI?

Moonboy65Apr 29, 20191 votes

yes

BlakeH33Apr 29, 20191 votes

How do we get the MSI map to show in game? Does that start May 1st as well?

Sir KissApr 30, 20191 votes

The total MSI prize pool will be made up of a base of $250,000, coupled with 25% of the total sale of Conqueror Alistar and Ward skins.

Is it just me or is this egregiously low? Should be 1,000,000 and 50% without even sweating. No reason LoL's biggest event besides worlds can't have a million dollar prize pool. None.

Moonboy65Apr 30, 20191 votes

Conqueror Alistar is out, but post says 05/02/2019

ok rito [zombie-brand-facepalm]