The first international League of Legends event of the year starts with the Mid-Season Invitational in Reykjavík, Iceland on May 6.
The event brings together 11 of the best teams from around the world in a three-week tournament–but the stakes have never been higher. This year, to incentivize teams to perform on the big stage, Riot Games has introduced a new format and prize structure.
The developer scrapped the play-in stage, which involved eight minor regions in a pre-tournament bracket, and has split the 11 teams into four tiers based on the results of the last two years of international tournaments. The result of this is three groups that Riot’s global director of operations Tom Martell drew “utilizing software to ‘randomly’” assign the teams.
Here’s how to watch MSI 2021.
Groups
Group A
- Royal Never Give Up (LPL)
- Unicorns of Love (LCL)
- Pentanet.GG (LCO)
Group B
- MAD Lions (LEC)
- PSG Talon (PCS)
- İstanbul Wildcats (TCL)
- PaiN Gaming (CBLOL)
Group C
- DAMWON Gaming (LCK)
- Cloud9 (LCS)
- DetonatioN FocusMe (LJL)
- Infinity Esports (LLA)
Format
The event will be split into three separate stages this year. There’s the Group stage, the Rumble stage, and the Knockout stage.
- Group stage
- Double round-robin for Groups B and C
- Quadruple round-robin for Group A
- Matches are best-of-one
- The two top teams from each group will advance to the Rumble stage
- Rumble stage
- Double round-robin
- Matches are best-of-one
- The top four teams will advance to the Knockout stage
- Knockout stage
- Single elimination bracket
- Matches are best of five
- Semifinals, finals
Schedule
MSI 2021 kicks off on May 6 at 8am CT. The three-week tournament concludes with the semis on May 21 to 22 and the finals on May 23 at 8am CT.
Group stage
May 6 at 8am CT
- DWG KIA vs. Cloud9
- Gillette Infinity vs. DetonatioN FocusMe
- Royal Never Give Up vs. Pentanet.GG
- Pentanet.gg vs. Unicorns of Love
- İstanbul Wild Cats vs. paiN Gaming
- MAD Lions vs. PSG Talon
May 7 at 8am CT
- Pentanet.GG vs. Royal Never Give Up
- Unicorns of Love vs. Royal Never Give Up
- Gillette Infinity vs. DWG KIA
- DetonatioN FocusMe vs. Cloud9
- İstanbul Wild Cats vs. MAD Lions
- PaiN Gaming vs. PSG Talon
May 9 at 8am CT
- Royal Never Give Up vs. Unicorns of Love
- Unicorns of Love vs. Pentanet.GG
- DWG KIA vs. DetonatioN FocusMe
- Cloud9 vs. Gillette Infinity
- MAD Lions vs. PaiN Gaming
- PSG Talon vs. İstanbul Wild Cats
May 9 at 8am CT
- Unicorns of Love vs. Royal Never Give Up
- Unicorns of Love vs. Pentanet.GG
- Royal Never Give up vs. Pentanet.GG
- Royal Never Give up vs. Unicorns of Love
- Pentanet.GG vs. Unicorns of Love
- Pentanet.GG vs. Royal Never Give Up
May 10 at 8am CT
- MAD Lions vs. İstanbul Wild Cats
- PSG Talon vs. PaiN Gaming
- İstanbul Wild Cats vs. PSG Talon
- PaiN Gaming vs. MAD Lions
- PaiN Gaming vs. İstanbul Wild Cats
- PSG Talon vs. MAD Lions
May 11 at 8am CT
- Cloud9 vs. DWG KIA
- DetonatioN FocusMe vs. Gillette Infinity
- DWG KIA vs. Gillette Infinity
- Cloud9 vs. DetonatioN FocusMe
- DetonatioN FocusMe vs. DWG KIA
- Gillette Infinity vs. Cloud9
Where to watch
MSI 2021 will be available to watch on Twitch and YouTube with live commentary on Riot’s official channels. It will also be streamed on LoL Esports.
