League of Legends’ second-biggest annual event has been canceled. For this year, at least, LoL fans will have to do without Mid-Season Invitational.
Bad news for international tournament fans
A new announcement from Riot Games Global Head of League of Legends Esports John Needham confirmed that the Mid-Season Invitational will not take place this year. The event was previously delayed for July but the subsequent expansion of travel bans and the ongoing pandemic made even this date too problematic for Riot.
Traditionally, the Mid-Season Invitational has served as the lynchpin in professional League of Legends for the first half of the year. The tournament features the winners of the spring season of all LoL leagues, with the champions of the four biggest leagues playing directly in the main event and the rest competing in a play-in stage.
A sudden and inevitable betrayal
While it is unfortunate that one of the biggest League of Legends events will be cancelled, it is easy to see why. While several of the regional leagues had pauses due to the COVID-19 situation, matches resumed online and many of the leagues have already concluded their playoffs.
However, it became increasingly clear that Riot would not be able to present its trademark opulent and supremely produced spectacle by July. Further delays mean that not only would the schedule of the summer season be disrupted but that the MSI would have to be scheduled increasingly close to the World Championship, LoL’s biggest esports event of the year. In this situation, heretical as it may sound, the tournament was becoming pointless.
Changes for Worlds
In a separate statement, Riot also announced that several regions will receive an additional seed for Worlds. The two leagues that showed the best results in the last two championships – China’s LPL and the European LEC – will now send four teams rather than three.
Vietnam’s VCS will once again send a second team to the event while. Same goes for the new Southeast Asian region that saw the merger of the LMS and the Garena leagues, now also standing at two representatives. The selection procedure for these regions’ representatives will likely change too, but no details were forthcoming for now.
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Meanwhile, you can follow the European Masters Tournament here to follow the best teams on the European semi-professional scene.
