There haven’t been many five-game series at the 2023 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational. But after one of the most exciting sets in London today, China’s JD Gaming and Korea’s T1 have written themselves into the history books with the most-viewed series in the tournament’s history.
After hitting a peak viewership of just under 2.3 million viewers worldwide, the two teams overtook the previous MSI record of 2.19 million viewers set by T1 and China’s Royal Never Give Up during last year’s finals, according to esports viewership aggregate Esports Charts.
Both of these Eastern powerhouses have established themselves as two of the best teams in the world since the year began, with JDG winning their second LPL championship this past spring and T1 finishing as a top-two squad for the fourth season in a row.
T1 were also coming off of a revenge win against Gen.G, while JDG just took down Bilibili Gaming with a perfect sweep. And it helped that this was the first time the LPL and LCK met at MSI 2023, making this one of the most-anticipated matches. But these numbers shouldn’t surprise too many people since T1 have always been a premier matchup for fans at international events.
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In fact, T1 have been featured in the top-three most-viewed matches at MSI 2023. And last year, all five of the most-watched matches in the tournament had T1 playing on one side of Summoner’s Rift.
Not only does T1 have the greatest player of all time on its roster with Faker, but they also have future icons like Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong and Ryu “Keria” Min-seok, who are quickly becoming young legends in their own right. Their individual skills and flashy playmaking have already captivated fans around the world and have almost guaranteed their place in the annals of LoL esports history.
JDG, on the other hand, also have some of the most talented players we’ve seen in League, including Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok, Zhuo “knight” Ding, and one of the best ADC players in history, Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk. Many fans and analysts believe that in each role, this juggernaut has a top-two player, making them a safe choice as a championship contender.
If these two behemoths end up colliding once more in the finals, we could see this record broken once again when MSI 2023 finishes on Sunday, May 21.
