2018 Mid-Season Invitational

The 2018 Mid-Season Invitational was the fourth edition of the Mid-Season Invitational, a Riot Games-organised tournament for League of Legends, the multiplayer online battle arena video game. The tournament is the culmination of the 2018 spring split, the first part of 8th season of the game competitive scene.

2018 Mid-Season Invitational

Tournament information
Sport	League of Legends
Location	Germany France
Dates	3 May–20 May
Administrator	Riot Games
Venue	EU LCS Studio (Berlin, Play-in stage & Main Group stage) Zénith Paris (Paris, Main Playoffs Stage)
Teams	14
Final positions
Champions	Royal Never Give Up
Runner-up	Kingzone DragonX
MVP	Jian "Uzi" Zihao (Royal Never Give Up)
← 2017 2019 →

Each of 14 premier League of Legends leagues have a team representing them; Europe (EU LCS), South Korea (LCK), North America (NA LCS) and China (LPL) had their teams automatically admitted into the main event whereas the other 10 leagues will compete among each other in a "play-in" with the top 2 teams advancing to join the main event. ^[1][2]

The tournament was hosted in Germany and France from 3 to 20 May 2018. Matches of the play-in and group stages were held in EU LCS Studio in Berlin, while playoffs took place in multi-purpose indoor arena Zénith Paris.^[3] Royal Never Give Up are the champions of the 2018 MSI, after taking down Kingzone DragonX in the finals. Jian "Uzi" Zihao was named the MVP of the entire tournament, due to his outstanding performances. The results of the tournament have received numerous international debates and reactions.^[4][5]

The event's finals, where LPL (China)'s Royal Never Give Up took on LCK (South Korea)'s Kingzone DragonX, became one of the most watched eSports matches in history, greatly attributed to China's viewership. The finals were watched by over 127 million unique viewers, while the entire event boasted a total viewing time of over 2 billion hours. The event also became one of the greatest League of Legends' tournaments in history, as well as one of its historical milestones, as a South Korean team was thwarted by a non-South Korean team in a major match for the first time in 3 years.^[6][7][8][9]

Qualified teams

Last year, team from Vietnam had qualified for MSI via Southeast Asian league. From 2018, Vietnam region will be separated from Southeast Asia region. The Spring split Champion team from Vietnamese league will qualify for MSI without take part in the Southeast Asian league. Number of regions up to 14.

Based on the result of the MSI and World Championship in 2 years before (2016–2017), 4 teams from Europe (EU LCS), North America (NA LCS), South Korea (LCK), and China (LPL) are started in Main Group Stage, 2 teams from Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau (LMS) and Vietnam (VCS) are started in Play-in round 2, 10 remaining teams are started in Play-in round 1. Unlike last year, loser at round 2 will be eliminated because there's no round 3 in Play-in Stage.

Region	League	Teams[1]	ID
Start in Main event's Group stage
China	LPL	Royal Never Give Up	RNG
Europe	EU LCS	Fnatic	FNC
North America	NA LCS	Team Liquid	TL
South Korea	LCK	Kingzone DragonX	KZ
Start in 2nd play-in round
TW/HK/MO	LMS	Flash Wolves	FW
Vietnam	VCS	EVOS Esports	EVS
Start in 1st play-in round
Brazil	CBLOL	KaBuM! e-Sports	KBM
CIS	LCL	Gambit Esports	GMB
Japan	LJL	Pentagram	PGM
Latin America North	LLN	Rainbow7	R7
Latin America South	CLS	Kaos Latin Gamers	KLG
Oceania	OPL	Dire Wolves	DW
Southeast Asia	GPL	Ascension Gaming	ASC
Turkey	TCL	SuperMassive e-Sports	SUP

Venues

Berlin, Paris were the two cities chosen to host the competition.

Berlin, Germany	Paris, France
Play-in Stage & Main Group Stage	Playoffs Stage
EU LCS Studio	Zénith Paris
Capacity: 174	Capacity: 9,000
Berlin	Paris

Play-In Stage

Groups

First place teams of each group advance to round 2 of the stage

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Gambit Esports	6	5	1	0.833	Advance to Play-In Knockouts
2	Rainbow7	6	3	3	0.500
3	Kaos Latin Gamers	6	2	4	0.333
4	Ascension Gaming	6	2	4	0.333

Group A

Source: LoL Esports

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Bahçeşehir SuperMassive	6	5	1	0.833	Advance to Play-In Knockouts
2	KaBuM! e-Sports	6	4	2	0.667
3	Dire Wolves	6	2	4	0.333
4	PENTAGRAM	6	1	5	0.167

Group B

Source: LoL Esports

Knockouts

Random draw. Winners of the series advance to group stage. Losers will be eliminated.

As the highest ranking emerging region in the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational, Vietnam (VCS) was given a direct spot in the main event at the 2018 World Championship, which was awarded to their summer champions.

	Semifinals
	Winner to Group Stage
	1	EVOS Esports	3
	2	SuperMassive eSports	1
	Winner to Group Stage
	1	Flash Wolves	3
	2	Gambit eSports	0

Group stage

Double Round Robin. Top 4 teams advance to Knock-out stage.

China, Europe, South Korea and TW/HK/MO will get pool 1 in 2018 World Championship Main Group Stage for Summer split Champion. North America and Vietnam will get pool 2.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Royal Never Give Up	11	8	3	0.727	Advance to Knockout Stage
2	Flash Wolves	11	7	4	0.636
3	King-Zone DragonX	10	6	4	0.600
4	Fnatic	11	5	6	0.455
5	Team Liquid	11	4	7	0.364
6	EVOS Esports	10	2	8	0.200

Source: LoL Esports

Knockout stage

• 1st place team of Group Stage chooses between 3rd and 4th place to be their semifinal opponent (RNG chose FNC)
• Matches are best of five

	Semifinals					Final
	1	Royal Never Give Up	3
	4	Fnatic	0
						Royal Never Give Up		3
						King-Zone DragonX		1
	2	Flash Wolves	1
	3	King-Zone DragonX	3

Semifinals

Semifinals	May 18	Royal Never Give Up	3	–	0	Fnatic	Paris, France
	11:00 UTC	Recap					Zénith Paris
		1	Game 1			0
		1	Game 2			0
		1	Game 3			0

Semifinals	May 19	Flash Wolves	1	–	3	King-Zone DragonX	Paris, France
	11:00 UTC	Recap					Zénith Paris
		0	Game 1			1
		1	Game 2			0
		0	Game 3			1
		0	Game 4			1

Finals

Final	May 20	Royal Never Give Up	3	–	1	King-Zone DragonX	Paris, France
	11:00 UTC	Recap					Zénith Paris
		1	Game 1			0
		0	Game 2			1
		1	Game 3			0
		1	Game 4			0

Ranking

Place	League	Teams	PS1	PS2	GS	SF	Final
1st	LPL	Royal Never Give Up			7–3	3–0	3–1
2nd	LCK	King-Zone DragonX			6–4	3–1	1–3
3rd–4th	LMS	Flash Wolves		3–0	7–3	1–3
	EU LCS	Fnatic			4–6	0–3
5th	NA LCS	Team Liquid			4–6
6th	VCS	EVOS Esports		3–1	2–8
7th–8th	TCL	SuperMassive e-Sports	5–1	1–3
	LCL	Gambit Esports	5–1	0–3
9th–10th	CBLOL	KaBuM! e-Sports	4–2
	LLN	Rainbow7	3–3
11th	OPL	Dire Wolves	2–4
12th–13th	CLS	Kaos Latin Gamers	2–4
	GPL	Ascension Gaming	2–4
14th	LJL	PENTAGRAM	1–5