Riot Games cancels 2020 League of Legends MSI, expands world champs

Riot Games initially delayed this year’s League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), with the hope the Covid-19 pandemic would have subsided by July, but that’s not happening so they’ve cancelled the 2020 MSI entirely.

The League of Legends MSI is an annual, international esports tournament in which 13 teams are invited to compete for major prize money and a Pool 1 place in the World Championship. Due to restrictions on travel and concerns for employee and participants’ safety, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, global head of League of Legends esports, John Needham, recently announced the 2020 MSI has been cancelled.

However, the 2020 League of Legends World Championship (celebrating LoL e-sports’ 10th anniversary) is still (so far) going ahead in China at the end of the year, with an increased player pool. Instead of the usual 16 teams, Worlds will be expanded to 24 with the following regional seed distribution:

• Four teams each from LPL (China) and LEC (Europe)
• Three teams each from LCK (Korea) and LCS (North America)
• Two teams each from PCS (southeast Asia) and VCS (Vietnam)
• One team each from CBLOL (Brazil), TCL (Turkey), LJL (Japan), LLA (Latin America), OPL(Oceania), and LCL (Commonwealth of Independent States).

Besides the changes to Worlds, Riot is planning a number of alternative LoL events and activities to keep everyone occupied. Details about what these will involve will come in the next few weeks.

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