Los Angeles, California – May 4, 2022 – The 2022 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational begins in a few short days! Here’s your one-stop shop for all things MSI. What is the Mid-Season Invitational? The Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) is a foundational battleground in the annual LoL Esports season, where rising stars and teams make a global name for themselves. Held between the first and second splits of the season, the best team from the regional leagues compete for the title. MSI is a time for regions to showcase their bold and unique identities and foreshadows the work needed for pros looking to claim a World Championship title. Riot Games supervises regional leagues in North America, Europe, Latin America, Brazil, Oceania, Korea, Turkey, Russia, Vietnam, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. The event moves between host regions each year; this year, teams will compete in Busan, South Korea. This year’s creative theme, “TAKE NOTES,” is a confident, attitude-infused call to action that highlights the epic moves and original style of MSI’s greatest pros. It continues to build out MSI as the bolder, grittier battleground of LoL Esports. When is MSI happening? MSI has three stages: the Group Stage, May 10-15; the Rumble Stage, May 20-24, and the Knockout Stage, May 27-29. Groups – Tuesday, May 10 – 1 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. CEST / 5 p.m. KST Groups -Wednesday, May 11 – 1 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. CEST / 5 p.m. KST Groups – Thursday, May 12 – 1 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. CEST / 5 p.m. KST Groups – Friday, May 13 – 11 p.m. PST / 8 a.m. CEST / 3 p.m. KST Groups – Saturday, May 14 – 11 p.m. PST / 8 a.m. CEST / 3 p.m. KST Groups – Sunday, May 15 – 11 p.m. PST / 8 a.m. CEST / 3 p.m. KST Rumble – Friday, May 20 – 1 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. CEST / 5 p.m. KST Rumble – Saturday, May 21 – 1 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. CEST / 5 p.m. KST Rumble – Sunday, May 22 – 1 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. CEST / 5 p.m. KST Rumble – Monday, May 23 – 1 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. CEST / 5 p.m. KST Rumble – Tuesday, May 24 – 11 p.m. PST / 8 a.m. CEST / 3 p.m. KST Knockouts – Friday, May 27 – 1 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. CEST / 5 p.m. KST Knockouts – Saturday, May 28 – 1 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. CEST / 5 p.m. KST Knockouts (Finals) – Sunday, May 29 – 1 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. CEST / 5 p.m. KST Where will MSI take place? The tournament will take place in Busan, South Korea, in two venues: the Busan Esports Arena (Groups) and the Bexco Exhibition Hall (Rumble and Knockouts). Busan is Korea’s second most populous city and is considered the home of esports – Busan hosted various stages of Worlds 2014 and Worlds 2018 previously. This is the first time MSI has traveled to Korea. What’s the format? GROUPS: Teams have been drawn into two groups of four and one group of three to play a best-of-one double round robin within their respective group during the Group Stage. The group of three will play a quadruple round robin. RUMBLE: The top two teams from each of the three groups will advance to the Rumble Stage, where all six teams will play a best-of-one double round robin. KNOCKOUTS: The final four teams standing will compete in the Knockout Stage utilizing a best-of-five single elimination format. The two remaining teams will compete on May 29 for the MSI Championship title. Find a format explainer video right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2YdVPWhfNs Which teams are competing? This year, the teams competing from each of the different regions are: CHINA – LPL Royal Never Give Up (RNG) KOREA – LCK T1 (T1) EUROPE – LEC G2 Esports (G2) NORTH AMERICA – LCS Evil Geniuses (EG) SOUTHEAST ASIA – PCS PSG.Talon Esports (PSG) BRAZIL – CBLOL RED Canids Kalunga (RED) JAPAN – LJL DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM) LATIN AMERICA – LLA Team Aze (AZE) OCEANIA – LCO ORDER (ORD) TURKEY – TCL fastPay Wildcats (IW) VIETNAM – VCS Saigon Buffalo Esports (SGB)* *The VCS Spring Split winner, GAM, will represent Vietnam in the SEA Games. How do I watch? In-person: Tickets for MSI 2022 can be purchased online! Tickets for the Group Stage are available now. Tickets for the Rumble Stage can be purchased starting May 11, and tickets for the Knockout Stage can be purchased starting May 16. Virtual: You can catch every match on lolesports.com. About Riot Games Riot Games was founded in 2006 to develop, publish, and support the most player-focused games in the world. In 2009, Riot released its debut title, League of Legends, to worldwide acclaim. League has gone on to be the most-played PC game in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of esports. With League in its second decade, Riot is continuing to evolve the game while delivering new experiences to players with Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, VALORANT, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and multiple work-in-progress titles. In addition, Riot Forge gives developers access to Riot’s IP to create games like Ruined King and plenty of other adventures across Runeterra. Riot is also expanding the world of Runeterra through multimedia projects across music, comic books, board games, and Arcane, its popular animated series. The annual League of Legends World Championship features qualified esports teams from 12 international leagues. Worlds is the most widely viewed and followed esport tournament, and it is among the largest and most popular gaming and sporting events in the world. Founded by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, and led by CEO Nicolo Laurent, Riot is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and has 3,000+ Rioters in 20+ offices worldwide.