Today let’s take an in-depth look at the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, the first League of Legends international tournament of the year! This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. The moment when six of the best teams across the world converge and trade heavy blows in order to find out who’s king.

The beauty of the Mid-Season Invitational is the fact that we’re really getting the crème de la crème of competitive League — only the champions from each region will get the opportunity to test their might against titans of similar strength. We are just days away from the Group Stage, so let’s take a closer look at the tournament itself, its format, as well as the six teams that will be competing!

2019 Mid-Season Invitational Preview | Interesting Facts

There isn’t any one interesting fact about the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational — everything is interesting. Every champion that is coming in is carrying a unique narrative, and each and every one of their incredible storylines has been developing over a prolonged period of time.

SKT T1

SKT T1 Is finally back at the top of the LCK, and they’re looking for redemption after an abysmal 2018. They want to make their region proud, earn back to their former glory, and usher in a new LCK era.

Invictus Gaming

Invictus has cemented their spot as the best team in the world — by far. They’re immensely talented and are looking to style on their opponents once again, this time on the second-biggest international stage in competitive League of Legends.

G2 Esports

G2 is entering the Mid-Season Invitational with a metric ton of hype and momentum. They’re a bonafide European super team and have incredible mechanical prowess and an uncanny ability to play any team comp/strategy and still attain success. They’re an enigma, and they can play through any lane they want to, making them one of the toughest challengers at this year’s MSI.

Team Liquid

Liquid still hasn’t found any international success even though they’ve been at the top of their region for a year and a half. Fortunately for any North American fans, they’re entering the tournament with one of the most capable and stacked rosters in NA’s history; a roster that includes not one but two World Champions. Perhaps this is the year they break through.

The Flash Wolves

The Wolves are coming in with a fair bit of hype — and yet not a lot of people are giving them much thought, as always. The Taiwanese champions are as deceptively strong and as elusive as always. They’re like a mini-LPL; they’re always willing to throw down regardless of the state of the game and have immense mechanical prowess as well. So what’s not to like? For one reason or another, no matter how well Taiwan performs as a region, they’re always playing second-fiddle to regions like LCK and LPL in the minds of many. Expect the Flash Wolves to overperform as they almost always do.

And finally, we have a brand-new Vietnamese contender that’s looking to make waves much like their predecessors (GIGABYTE Marines and EVOS Esports) did before them.

Everyone has something to prove, and something to fight for. They’re all incredibly capable, especially in the current meta that favors a little bit of craziness. Expect upsets and huge, back-and-forth brawls that will immediately etch themselves into your conscience.

Let the games begin!

Tournament Format

The Mid-Season Invitational is divided into three stages:

• Play-In Stage (May 1st — May 7th): Eight teams fought against each other in Ho Chi Minh City. The best teams from each group then went on to face the LCS (Team Liquid) and LMS (Flash Wolves) champions in order to get a bye into the Group Stage. The winners from those two Best of 5s advanced further (Liquid and the Wolves), and the losers fought against each other in order to get the very last Group Stage ticket.
• Group Stage (May 10th — May 14th): This is where the LCK, LPL, and LEC champions await the final three challengers from the Play-Ins. This stage is a Best of 1, double round-robin format, with the Top 4 teams advancing to the Knockout Stage.
• Knock-out Stage (May 17th — May 19th): This is where the four best teams from the Group Stage will fight in a Best of 5 Single Elimination format in order to win the whole tournament.

The Group Stage will be held at the National Convention Center in Hanoi, Vietnam, with a capacity of 3,700. The Knock-out Stage, however, will be held at the Heping Basketball Gymnasium in Taipei, Taiwan — an arena with a much more impressive capacity of 6,958.

Prize Pool Distribution

The Mid-Season Invitational prize pool isn’t as black and white as with most esports tournaments. There’s a flat minimum amount that Riot Games is providing ($1,000,000), and a currently unknown amount that is increasing with each passing day. Much like with the World Championship, Riot is selling a tournament-specific skin (this time it’s Conqueror Alistar), and a chunk of its revenue will go directly towards the overall prize pool.

The skin will be on sale throughout the tournament, so expect the final prize pool sum to be unveiled once the tournament concludes.

The final prize pool for the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational was almost $1.7 million, whereas last year’s tournament had a slightly more modest reward of $1.37 million.

The way the prize pool is going to be distributed is as follows:

1st Place — $400,000 minimum (40% of the total prize pool)

2nd Place — $200,000 minimum (20% of the total prize pool)

3rd Place — $100,000 minimum (10% of the total prize pool)

4th Place — $100,000 minimum (10% of the total prize pool)

5th Place — $50,000 minimum (5% of the total prize pool)

6th Place — $50,000 minimum (5% of the total prize pool)

2019 Mid-Season Invitational Preview | Teams Overview

The six teams that will be competing over the next couple of days are, quite literally, the best and most capable teams in the world. The World Championship format creates an opportunity for underdogs to upset, but when it comes to the Mid-Season Invitational, only the best teams from each and every region get a ticket.

And that’s fantastic because we know we’re going to witness exceptional top tier play — no exceptions.

The six teams that will be competing for a place in the history books and a huge sack of cash are

1. SKT T1 (LCK Champions, Korea)

What can one say about the legendary Korean champions that hasn’t already been said? Other than the fact that they’ve risen from the “dead” and have yet again reclaimed their LCK throne, they’ve been looking like an absolute beast any time they stepped foot on stage.

And how could they not, with such a stellar line-up? They have multiple threats across the map, and even if Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok doesn’t hard carry — he has teammates that will. This is also a much more aggressive and proactive SKT than in season’s past. They’re willing to throw down and they have full confidence in their mechanical prowess and ability to control the game.

They’re still a bit rough around the edges, and they’re prone to making errors — but that’s perfectly understandable seeing how they’ve been playing as a five-man unit for five or so months. That said, even in their current state they’re more than capable of winning the whole tournament.

2. Invictus Gaming (LPL Champions, China)

The Chinese champions are entering the Mid-Season Invitational as the clear-cut favorites. They’ve won the 2018 World Championship with relative ease, and after they outclassed Fnatic in the finals (in clean 3-0 fashion), they haven’t skipped a beat. They’re exceptional across the board and they have the best top and mid laner in the world right now.

Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok and Song “Rookie” Eui-jin are so darn good that it’s easy to forget that Invictus Gaming has absolute beasts in other roles as well. Much like any other LPL champion that came before them, their macro and team play is great, but where they really excel at are those hectic five-on-five team fights that — at least when China is playing — tend to break out from the very get-go. Blink once and you’ll miss it.

3. G2 Esports (LEC Champions, Europe)

The European champions are coming in with a metric ton of hype, and with good reason. This is arguably the most stacked European team we’ve seen yet — and they’re echoing a lot of what made Invictus Gaming so good last year. They have threats in every single lane, they’re mechanically dominant, and they can play both calculated and subdued but also throw caution out the window and skirmish non-stop.

This flexibility, both in-game as well as in the pick and ban phase will allow them to surprise anyone they go up against. When they do clash against a titan of equal strength, they have absolute confidence in their play to emerge victorious, and with such a positive mindset, they’re poised to make big waves once the Group Stage comes around.

4. Team Liquid (LCS Champions, North America)

The North American champions have once again reached the second-biggest international tournament after a dominant run on home soil, but that doesn’t mean they’re favored by any stretch of the imagination. No one’s doubting their strength or their innate talent, but for one reason or another, North America as a whole never attained much success on the biggest of stages (with Cloud9 being the only exception).

Will they be able to re-write the script this time around? The odds are stacked against them, but if they’re unable to do so with such an incredible line-up, then it might as well be time to sound the alarms.

5. Flash Wolves (LMS Champions, Taiwan)

The LMS champions are entering the tournament with a fair bit of momentum, although they’re running a slightly tweaked, much less experienced line-up. Regardless, the region as a whole is often scrimming with both China and Vietnam, so their playstyles slightly overlap. And that’s far from a bad thing.

They’re not predicted to do much this time around, but they could — like always — create a fair bit of chaos in the Group Stage. In any case, don’t underestimate the LMS champs because they always thrive and prosper in such an environment.

6. Phong Vu Buffalo (VCS Champions, Vietnam)

The Vietnamese champions have big shoes to fill, especially considering the fact that they’re coming from a region that’s already well-known for its innate aggression and unhinged style of play. Fortunately, they fit the bill, and have done more than enough throughout the Play-In stage to deserve a fair bit of respect.

They are, however, heavily outmatched so they shouldn’t be able to do much against the many titans they’re going to face. Regardless, they’re a tough nut to crack and they definitely have the capacity to upset.

2019 Mid-Season Invitational Preview | Schedule

Fortunately for all fans of top tier competitive League, we’re in for quite a big number of games over the course of the tournament. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

You can take a look at the complete schedule by going to Riot’s official website!

Your schedule for the first day of the #MSI2019 Group Stage! See you in Hanoi! ??#G2WIN#SKTWIN#FWWIN#TLWIN#IGWIN #PVBWIN pic.twitter.com/IRwytga3Ze

— lolesports (@lolesports) May 7, 2019

And finally, you can watch the Mid-Season Invitation on a wide variety of services — Twitch, YouTube, as well as the LoL Esports website, the last of which will grant you a couple of in-game goodies. Just make sure you’re logged in while watching!

That’s it for our 2019 Mid-Season Invitational preview! Make sure to tune in because this is going to be a tournament worthy of the history books. That’s a guarantee.