Why are RNG replaying 3 group stage games at MSI 2022?

Royal Never Give Up are being forced to replay three of their games at the 2022 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational. The team’s first three games of the group stage were erased from the record books today after Riot Games discovered an “unintended disparity in latency between competing teams” during RNG’s games. RNG are the only team competing at this year’s MSI remotely due to COVID-related travel restrictions. 

Riot has been using a specialized network latency-regulating tool to keep the ping of MSI games at approximately 35 milliseconds for all participants, to keep the event as fair as possible. Riot, however, discovered through testing that the latency tool wasn’t displaying the correct ping for players participating at MSI in-person. 

Related: Danny talks about EG’s tough start at MSI 2022 and the 35 ping debacle

Before the second round-robin of the group stage began on May 13, RNG’s record was reset to 0-0 and the three games that they had played over the first three days of the tournament were made void. 

“Following extensive technical evaluation of the competitive and training environments during the first three days of the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational, we discovered following Day 3 that there was a discrepancy in the latency being reported in game logs for all matches versus what was being experienced in the Busan venue,” Alex François, global head of competitive operations at Riot Games, said in a statement today.

RNG won all three of the games they played in the first round-robin, defeating Istanbul Wildcats on day one of MSI, PSG Talon on day two, and RED Canids on day three. Those wins were wiped due to the latency discrepancy and will be replayed on May 14. Following the scheduled games on that day, RNG will play a tripleheader against the three opponents in their group. 

Today, RNG played three games in the second round-robin of the group stage, winning all three of those games with corrected latency. The team will return to the MSI stage tomorrow for their three make-up games.