2024 Mid-Season Invitational

Tournament Format and Significance

The 2024 Mid-Season Invitational featured a twelve team field, with eight teams starting in a play in stage and four top seeds advancing directly to the bracket stage. The play in stage, held from May 1 to 5, used a double elimination format with best of three matches. The four advancing teams then joined the top seeds from the four major regions in a double elimination bracket stage, where all matches were best of five series.

This edition introduced a major new rule. For the first time, the winner of MSI would receive an automatic qualification for the 2024 League of Legends World Championship. This spot was contingent on the team qualifying for the playoffs in their own region's summer split later in the year, adding significant stakes to the mid season crown.

The Road to Chengdu

Twelve teams qualified for the event, representing leagues from around the world. The four major regions, China's LPL, South Korea's LCK, Europe's LEC, and North America's LCS, each sent two representatives. One team from each of these leagues entered directly into the bracket stage as a top seed. The second seeds from these regions, along with the champions of the PCS, VCS, LLA, and CBLOL leagues, began their tournament in the play in stage.

The reigning MSI champions, JD Gaming from China, were notably absent. They failed to qualify after being defeated by Top Esports in the lower bracket final of the 2024 LPL Spring Playoffs, ending their chance to defend the title on home soil.

Play in Stage and Bracket Draw

The initial phase of the tournament whittled the eight play in teams down to four. These four survivors advanced to the bracket stage as lower seeded teams. For the bracket stage draw, teams from the same seeding pool were placed on different sides of the bracket. Furthermore, a rule prevented teams from the same region from facing each other in the upper bracket quarterfinals, ensuring early international matchups.

The bracket stage ran from May 7 to 19, with most days beginning at 17:00 China Standard Time. The matches on May 11 and 12 started earlier, at 12:00 CST, to accommodate the schedule.

Gen.G's Historic Victory

The tournament culminated in a grand final between South Korea's Gen.G and China's Bilibili Gaming, the previous year's finalist. Gen.G emerged victorious with a 3 1 scoreline, claiming the MSI trophy and the $50,000 top prize from the total prize pool.

This victory was historic on multiple fronts. Gen.G became only the second Korean team ever to win MSI, following T1's victory in 2016. More importantly, their win ended a three year period of dominance by Chinese LPL teams, marking the first time a non LPL squad had won the tournament since 2021.

Host City and Venue

Chengdu, China, was selected as the host city for MSI 2024. This marked the second time China had hosted the Mid Season Invitational, with the first being in 2016. All stages of the competition, from the play in matches to the grand final, were held at a single venue, the Chengdu Financial City Performing Arts Center, also referred to as the Wuliangye Chengdu Performing Arts Center.

The event brought the global League of Legends community to the city for nearly three weeks of high stakes competition, confirming MSI's role as a crucial international checkpoint on the road to the World Championship.