Just like in the past 13 years, the month of May means the League of Legends (LOL) Mid-Season International (MSI) is on! Many LOL fans tune in to watch this tournament because it shows off the best teams in world, as of the middle of the year, and it helps everyone understand the meta for the current season of ranked gameplay. MSI is the second biggest LOL tournament of any given year, only second to the World Championships which take place in October and November. However, MSI has changed over the past couple years. Let’s take a look at what these changes mean for MSI 2024.

Starting in 2023 and still happening in 2024, four additional teams are invited to the tournament. These newly invited teams are the second seeds from the four major regions, Korea, China, Europe, and North America. With this injection of talent into the tournament, various aspects of the competition have been greatly improved. First, there are more games being played which is always a good thing for LOL fans. Second, the competition is much higher stakes than normal because the second seed teams are generally just as good as the first seeds. Third, these additional teams have forced the MSI format to change into best of threes and best of fives matches between teams instead of best of ones; this changes basically eliminates the changes of fluke wins (aka cheese wins in video game terms) because winning the series means winning two games, not just one.

Moving into tournament format, all the brackets in the MSI are double elimination, meaning a team can lose one series and be safe but two losses mean a team is out. At the time this article is being written, the first stage of MSI is taking place, the Play-In stage. During the play-ins, the second seed teams from major regions and the first seed teams from four minor regions are randomly drawn into two brackets made up of four teams each. Here are the eight teams currently finishing up their matches in the play-in stage:

  • T1 from the LCK (Korea #2 seed, also were the 2023 World Champions)
  • TOP Esports from the LPL (China #2 seed)
  • Fnatic from the LEC (Europe #2 seed)
  • FlyQuest from the LCS (North America #2 seed)
  • GAM Esports from the VCS (Vietnam #1 seed)
  • PSG Talon from the PCS (Southern Pacific #1 seed)
  • LOUD from the CBLOL (Brazil #1 seed)
  • Estral Esports from the LLA (South America #1 seed)

So far in the play-ins, T1 and TOP Esports have made it into the final Bracket stage for the top eight teams, and Estral Esports and LOUD have been eliminated from the MSI. The remaining four teams will play their last matches of the play-in stage and the winners move on while the losers are out of the tournament. The first seeds from the four major regions get a bye from the play-ins, making a total of 12 teams in the MSI but only eight will make it to the final bracket stage. Here are the four first seed teams from the major regions that are already in the final bracket stage of MSI:

  • Gen.G from the LCK
  • Bilibili Gaming from the LPL
  • G2 Esports from the LEC
  • Team Liquid Honda from the LCS

These teams plus T1, TOP Esports, and two more teams whose matches have yet to be won in the play-ins will all be placed into the final Bracket stage. Once MSI moves into this final Bracket stage, the slate will be wiped clean and again, it is a double elimination format with best of five matches between the top eight teams. If the play-in stage is any indication of how the final Bracket stage will play out, it looks like it is another year of either Korean or Chinese domination in Season 14 of League of Legends. However, European and North American fans can still hope that this year will be different. So what team are you hoping to see win?