2025 Mid-Season Invitational

Last updated
2025 Mid-Season Invitational
Tournament information
Sport League of Legends
Location Vancouver, Canada
Dates27 June–12 July 2025
Administrator Riot Games
Venue(s) Pacific Coliseum
Teams10
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The 2025 Mid-Season Invitational will be the tenth Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), a Riot Games-organised tournament for League of Legends , a multiplayer online battle arena video game. The tournament will be held in Vancouver, Canada, and will be the first edition of the tournament to feature the Fearless Draft format, [1] and the first to be staged under the game's new competitive esports calendar since 2025. [2] The tournament will be held between 27 June and 12 July 2025.

Contents

It will be Canada's first hosting of an international League of Legends competition, with the tournament winners securing their slot at the 2025 World Championship. [a]

Gen.G of the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) are the defending champions. [3]

Host selection

During the media day for the 2024 League of Legends World Championship Final at The O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom on 1 November 2024, Riot Games announced that the 2025 edition of the Mid-Season Invitational will take place in Canada, with the host city being determined at the start of the 2025 competitive calendar. This will be Canada's first hosting of a major League of Legends tournament since the Finals of the 2017 North American League Championship Series (NA LCS) Spring Split, when it was held at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada. [4]

Toronto was originally slated to host the semi-final stage of the 2022 League of Legends World Championship at the Scotiabank Arena. [5] However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada on securing multi-entry visas, Riot Games announced the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, United States as its replacement venue. [6]

Venue

On 8 January 2025, Vancouver was announced as the host city in a development update video published to Riot Games' social media channels to commence the 2025 competitive season. [7] [8] The Pacific Coliseum, which was the site of 2017 NA LCS Spring Finals, was chosen as the venue of the tournament on 20 March 2025. [9]

Vancouver, Canada
Pacific Coliseum
Capacity: 17,500
Pacificcoliseum.jpg
Canada location map 2.svg
Red pog.svg
Vancouver
2025 Mid-Season Invitational (Canada)

Qualification and Format

The League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), League of Legends Pro League (LPL), League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC), League of Legends Championship of The Americas (LTA), and the League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP) will have two qualified teams each. [2] The LCK, by virtue of Hanwha Life Esports winning the First Stand Tournament, will have its two qualified teams placed in the Bracket Stage, while the other four regions will each have one team in the Play-In and one team in the Bracket Stage.

This will be the first Mid-Season Invitational featuring the LCP, a new Asia-Pacific league consisting of a merger between the Pacific Championship Series (PCS), Vietnam Championship Series (VCS), League of Legends Japan League (LJL) and League of Legends Circuit Oceania (LCO), and the LTA, a merger between the League Championship Series (LCS), Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLOL), and Liga Latinoamérica (LLA).

The 2025 Mid-Season Invitational will be the first edition of the tournament to adopt the Fearless Draft format, where teams cannot pick a champion that they've already played in a series, even if the opposing team already picked that champion. While Fearless Draft was intended to only be used during the first split of the season, Riot Games announced prior to the FST final that it would apply for the rest of the year after it received "overwhelming" positive feedback during the period. [1]

Notes

  1. ↑ The automatic slots comes to effect when the team qualifies for the playoffs of their region's third split. MSI 2024 champions Gen.G qualified for the 2024 World Championship after qualifying for the 2024 LCK Summer Split playoffs, but formally qualified through championship points, a Worlds slot pre-requisite provided for the LCK at the time.

References

  1. 1 2 Ciocchetti, Cecilia (16 March 2025). "Fearless Draft is here to stay: "Overwhelmingly positive feedback," says Riot's global head of LoL Esports". Dot Esports. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  2. 1 2 "LoL Esports: Building Towards A Brighter Future". lolesports.com. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  3. ↑ Mike Stubbs (19 May 2024). "Gen.G Wins The 'League Of Legends' Mid-Season Invitational". Forbes . Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  4. ↑ Lynch, James (1 November 2024). "League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational is heading to Canada in 2025". Dexerto . Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  5. ↑ "Riot Games Reveals Multi-City Tour across North America for 2022 League of Legends World Championship". lolesports.com. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  6. ↑ "Atlanta's State Farm Arena Welcomes LoL Esports for the 2022 League of Legends World Championship". State Farm Arena . Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  7. ↑ Ciocchetti, Cecilia (8 January 2025). "Riot just dropped the schedule and location for every LoL esports tournament up to 2027". Dot Esports . Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  8. ↑ "LoL Esports in 2025". lolesports.com. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  9. ↑ "Announcing the MSI 2025 Venue!". lolesports.com. Retrieved 20 March 2025.
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