For those of you who are familiar with the esport, League of Legends (LoL), the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI 2022) will be held on May 10th to May 29th in Busan, South Korea! The last time the best League of Legends teams in the world faced off one another in Busan, was back during the 2018 Worlds Championship. Busan is South Korea’s 2nd largest city with many attractions from the scenic Haedong Yonggungsa Temples, to the colourful Gamcheon Culture Village and its beautiful beaches such as the Gwangalli and Haeundae beaches.
You might be curious to first get acquainted with T1 before MSI begins! Follow their journey towards victory at the 2022 LCK Spring Split Finals!
To the uninitiated or for those who struggle to remember, you may have heard of LoL or T1 back when the 2020 T1 roster players appeared on “BTS Run” as special guests or when Baekhyun, Raiden and CHANGMO dropped the “Runner” MV in collaboration with T1 in 2021! In fact, “Runner” was also shortlisted as a candidate to be T1’s anthem for the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational tournament.
Baekhyun is a self-professed fanboy of Faker from T1!
10 out of the 11 champion teams from various regions have gathered in Busan this week for their quarantine before the actual competition begins and fans will be happy to note that live audiences have been permitted for the event despite the on-going pandemic situation!
◉ Representing Korea from the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) is T1
◉ Representing China from the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) is Royal Never Give Up (RNG).
◉ Representing Europe from the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) is G2 Esports (G2)
◉ Representing North America from the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) is Evil Geniuses (EG)
◉ Representing Southeast Asia (excl. Vietnam) from the Pacific Championship Series (PCS) is PSG.Talon Esports (PSG)
◉ Representing Brazil from the Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLOL) is RED Canids Kalunga (RED)
◉ Representing Japan from the League of Legends Japan League (LJL) is DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM)
◉ Representing Latin America from the Liga Latinoamérica (LLA) is Team Aze (AZE)
◉ Representing Oceania from the League of Legends Circuit Oceania (LCO) is ORDER (ORD)
◉ Representing Turkey from the Turkish Championship League (TCL) is fastPay Wildcats (IW)
◉ Representing Vietnam from the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS) is Saigon Buffalo Esports (SGB)
On April 21st, it was announced that RNG would be competing online from China due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, a latency tool will be used to maintain ping as close as possible to 35 ms for all teams throughout the competition. This has raise some concerns within the LoL community as for example, North American professional players are used to playing under such conditions while the Korean and Chinese players generally only play within an 9-15 ms delay, and thus having a 35ms delay for the MSI stage is going to make a difference (thereby, also negating part of the Korean team’s homeground advantage). At the usual tournaments whereby all teams play LIVE together, via the local area network, the ping would be closer to 0 ms.
Image belongs to Riot Games.
This year’s theme “TAKE NOTES” highlights past epic moves seen throughout the historical MSI games and pays tribute to the original, greatest LoL pros.
The MSI will be broken down to 3 stages:
◉ May 10th-15th – Group Stage (where the top 2 teams from each of the 3 groups will advance to the next stage)
> GROUP A: T1, SGB, AZE, DFM
> GROUP B: RNG, PSG, IW, RED
> GROUP C: G2, EG, ORD
◉ May 20-24th – Rumble Stage (where the top 4 teams from a best-of-one double-round robin will progress to the next stage)
◉ May 27-29th – Knockout Stage (where best-of-5 series will be played until a champion team is crowned!)
T1 is one of the frontrunners of the 2022 MSI as they went an entire season undefeated throughout the 2022 LCK Spring Split!
The Group Stage will be taking place in the Busan Esports Arena while the players will move to the Bexco Exhibition Hall 1 for the Rumble and Knockout Stages.
You can catch every match on the LoL Esports’ Youtube channel by paying attention to the MSI Schedule for the specific match dates.
