All the teams qualified for the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational

The field of 11 teams competing at the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), the second-most important League of Legends tournament of the year, is set. The spring playoffs winners of all of Riot Games’ League of Legends regional leagues will be in attendance except for two. China’s Royal Never Give up will compete remotely due to COVID-related travel complications, and the League of Legends Continental League (LCL) will not send a representative since the league’s season was canceled due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Below is a primer on each of the 11 teams that will be competing along with which region and league they will be representing.

T1

Korea (LCK)

Photo credit: Riot Games Korea

T1 had a perfect spring. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok & Co. went 18-0 during the spring split and then won both of their best-of-five series in the playoffs only dropping one map to be crowned League Champions Korea spring champions. The team formerly known as SK Telecom T1 has a storied legacy in League of Legends. The org has won the League of Legends World Championship three times and MSI twice, but this might be their best team ever. MSI will be in South Korea for the first time, so they’ll have a home crowd advantage. T1 will be heavy favorites to win the tournament.

PSG Talon

Pacific (PCS)

PSG Talon have been the top team in the Pacific Championship Series since last year. They have finished first in all the region’s regular season splits and playoffs since spring 2021. At MSI last year, PSG finished in the top four, so expectations are high for this team to potentially replicate that result. They have lost Kim “River” Dong-woo and Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang since MSI 2021, but with Wong “Unified” Chun Kit and Ling “Kaiwing” Kai Wing still anchoring the roster, PSG is still a very strong team.

G2 Esports

Europe (LEC)

Photo credit: Riot Games

G2 went on quite a run during the League of Legends European Championship spring playoffs to qualify for MSI. They got knocked into the lower bracket after the first round and didn’t drop a map the rest of the playoffs. They won four straight series with a combined 12-0 score to once again become LEC champs after a lackluster 2021. This is a very different roster from the 2019 squad that won MSI while beating T1 three times before beating them again at Worlds later that year. However, Rasmus "caPs" Borregaard Winther and Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski are still on G2, and Faker wants revenge, so any matchups between G2 and T1 will be must-watch.

Istanbul Wildcats

Turkey (TCL)

Like PSG Talon, the Istanbul Wildcats are making a return trip to MSI. Unlike PSG, they didn’t do quite as well at last year’s MSI. They only won one game, but it was against Europe’s MAD Lions and former Turkish league star İrfan Berk “Armut” Tükek. The Wildcats finished first in both the TCL’s winter split and the winter split playoffs, and with an experienced roster that was at MSI 2021, they might surprise some teams in Korea.

Evil Geniuses

NA (LCS)

Photo credit: Peter Chau / Riot Games via ESPAT

North American teams are often criticized for spending big on international stars and not developing homegrown talent. Evil Geniuses just upended that, winning the League Championship Series spring championship with two young up-and-coming NA stars in Kyle "Danny" Sakamaki and Joseph “jojopyun” Joon Pyun. After a fourth-place finish in the spring split, they took their play to another level with 3-0 wins over Cloud9, Team Liquid and 100 Thieves. They’ll head to South Korea for MSI as an unknown quantity, but will look to make a big splash on the international stage.

ORDER

Oceania (LCO)

ORDER achieved their best result ever by finishing first in the League of Legends Circuit Oceania spring playoffs. The team never finished better than second in a regular season split or playoffs in Oceania. Despite an 11-10 record in the spring split, they didn’t drop a single map in three consecutive playoff series and then beat Chiefs, a team that went 19-2 in the spring split, in the LCO playoffs grand final. The top laner for this team is Brandon “BioPanther” Alexander, who was on the Pentanet team that did surprisingly well at MSI last year.

Royal Never Give Up

China (LPL)

Photo credit: Riot Games

Royal Never Give Up are back at the Mid-Season Invitational to defend their 2021 MSI title. They finished the spring split in second and beat Top Esports twice in the upper final and grand final of the League of Legends Pro League spring playoffs to qualify. RNG are one of two teams (along with T1) to have won MSI twice. Unfortunately they will be competing remotely due to COVID-related travel restrictions. However, that should not put them at a disadvantage. To accommodate the fact they will be playing remotely, Riot has announced that the tournament will be played on 35 ping as opposed to the standard zero ping environment.

Red Canids

Brazil (CBLOL)

Pulling off lower bracket runs seemed to be a trend this spring. Like G2, Evil Geniuses and ORDER, Red Canids successfully completed a lower bracket run in the Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends playoffs to reach MSI. After losing in the first round of the playoffs, they beat Liberty, FURIA, KaBuM! e-Sports and paiN Gaming to be crowned champions. Red Canids previously appeared at MSI in 2017, but their latest international appearance was at Worlds last year.

DetonatioN FocusMe

Japan (LJL)

Photo credit: Riot Games

DFM have been the best League of Legends team in Japan for the past few years. With the exception of summer 2020, DFM finished first in every League of Legends Japan League regular season split and playoffs since summer 2018. They had a banner year last year when they achieved their best results on the international stage at MSI and Worlds — where they advanced to the group stage for the very first time. They have some of the longest-tenured players of any team at MSI, with Yuta “Yutapon” Sugiura being active on DFM since 2013 and Shunsuke “Evi” Murase and Mun “Steal” Geon-yeong anchoring the roster since 2017.

Saigon Buffalo

Vietnam (VCS)

A Vietnamese team did not compete at MSI or Worlds 2021 due to COVID travel restrictions, so this will be the first time since 2019 that the Vietnam Championship Series will be sending a team abroad. Saigon Buffalo finished second in the VCS playoffs to earn the spot. First-place GAM Esports will not be Vietnam’s representative because they will be competing in the SEA Games instead. It’s unfortunate because GAM were undefeated across the spring split and spring playoffs, so it would have been interesting to see how such a dominant team fared against international competition — especially from a region as respected as Vietnam. Saigon should be a worthy representative though as they took two of the only three maps that GAM lost all spring.

Team Aze

Latin America (LLA)

Team Aze were promoted to the Liga Latinoamérica in the offseason and had an impressive debut split. They finished second in the opening split and then won the opening playoffs, beating Infinity and Estral Esports — who eliminated the 13-1 Rainbow7 — to qualify for MSI. They have one of the most diverse rosters at MSI with Korean players in the top and bottom lane, a Dominican jungler, Chilean mid laner and Ecuadorian support.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games