2021 Mid-Season Invitational

The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational was the sixth Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), a Riot Games-organised tournament for League of Legends, a multiplayer online battle arena video game. The tournament was the culmination of the 2021 Spring Split and the first international competition of Season 11.

Each of the 12 premier League of Legends leagues had a team representing them. This was the first edition in which all competitive regions began in the same stage of the tournament, unlike previous years where the winners of the minor leagues had to win play-in matches to face teams from the larger regions.^[1]^[2]

"Starts Right Here" was the tournament's theme song, put together by Foreign Air, and Kenny Mason.^[3]

The tournament was hosted in Iceland from 6 to 23 May 2021. All of the matches were held in the Laugardalshöll in Reykjavík due to restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic. Royal Never Give Up from China defeated the Worlds Champion DWG KIA from South Korea 3–2 in the final, winning their second MSI title.

Format

The format for 2021 replaces the play-in stage used from 2017 to 2019 with a group stage featuring all regions. The 12 teams were seeded into 3 groups from 4 seeding pools. This is the first time that teams from Europe (LEC), South Korea (LCK) and China (LPL) will not automatically qualify for the second stage (known as the rumble stage, formerly the group stage of the main event) but have to compete with all remaining teams.

The top two teams in each group in group stage qualify for the rumble stage, a six team double round robin. The top four teams of the rumble stage advance to the single elimination knockout stage.

The winning team earns their region an additional bid to the 2021 League of Legends World Championship.

Qualified teams

The number of regions decreased from 13 at MSI 2019 to 12, due to the merger of Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau (LMS) and Southeast Asian (LST) professional leagues into the PCS for 2020.

Pools of group stage are determined by the achievements of regions during the MSI and Worlds events from the two years prior.

Venue

Reykjavík was the city chosen to host the competition. All matches will be played at Laugardalshöll without spectators.

Group stage

Date and time: 6–11 May, begins at 13:00 UTC
Twelve teams are drawn into three groups, with four teams in each group
Quadruple round robin for group A, double round robin for groups B and C; all matches are best-of-one
If two teams have the same win–loss record and head-to-head record then a tiebreaker match is played
Top two teams will advance to the rumble stage; bottom two teams are eliminated

Group A

Source: LoL Esports

Group B

Source: LoL Esports

Group C

Source: LoL Esports

Rumble stage

Date and time: 14–18 May, begins at 13:00 UTC
Six teams will play in a double round robin; matches are best-of-one
If teams have the same win–loss record and head-to-head record, then tiebreaker matches are played for first, second, and fourth place
Top four teams will advance to the Knockout stage; bottom two teams are eliminated

Source: LoL Esports

Knockout stage

1st place team from the rumble stage chooses between 3rd and 4th to be their semifinal opponent (DK chose MAD).
Single elimination, matches are best-of-five

Source: LoL Esports

Semifinals

Finals

Ranking

(*) Not including tie-break games.

Notes

^ Due to national travel restrictions related to COVID-19 in Vietnam, ⁠⁠GAM Esports was unable to participate.^[4]

References

^ "MSI 2021 is Heading to Reykjavik, Iceland". lolesports.com. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
^ Lim, Jang-won (20 April 2021). "MSI preview: 11 teams heading to Iceland; VCS unable to attend once again". Korea Herald. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
^ "MSI 2021's anthem 'Starts Right Here' is a banger, but not quite". OneEsports. 3 May 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
^ Jimoh, Rashidat (19 April 2021). "VCS champions GAM Esports unable to participate in MSI". Upcomer. Retrieved 24 November 2023.

External links

2021 Mid-Season Invitational Rules