League of Legends: Riot Confirms 2020 MSI is Canceled

Hanoi, Vietnam – May 10: — during the 2019 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational Group Stage at the National Convention Center on May 10, 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam. (Photo by David Lee/Riot Games) /

Riot announced the annual MSI tournament has been canceled.

With spring splits coming to a close all around the world, we start looking forward to the first international tournament of the year MSI. Everyone is itching to see Cloud9, G2, and the other international juggernaut’s square off, wagering who else will make it in and what are their chances to win the event.

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Well, it looks like no team will be participating as Riot has announced they are canceling MSI for 2020. While this is a good idea for public health and safety, it sure is a bummer for the fans.

It pretty much renders the Spring Splits moot and we won’t get to see international play for months. Trying to look on the bright side, this may just hype up Worlds even more.

In this announcement, Riot also announced there are some changes coming to Worlds seeding. The LPL and LEC have been given a fourth seed to the World Championships, meaning the top four teams from those leagues will be playing at Worlds. The LCK and LCS still have three seeds, while the new PCS and Vietnam have two seeds. The CBLOL, TCL, LJL, LLA, OPL, and LCL will stay at one team each.

The additional seeds are based on international performance over the past two years. It’s hard to argue that these two haven’t been the best regions, especially with China having the past two world champions and Europe the past two world runners-up. It also doesn’t change the number of seeded teams from last year to this year as the field still sits at 24.

In my opinion, this move is likely going to be for the better. Last year if the LPL had four teams last year we would have gotten to see Top Esports and from the LEC it would have been Schalke 04.

This will undoubtedly elevate the competition by having a major region’s team instead of a lower-tier non-major region team would. One drawback is that this would also make the gap larger between the major regions and the other regions as they have an additional team to potentially win worlds. Hopefully, this doesn’t stay stagnant and the different regions’ performances at future World Championships continue to rotate the number of seeds.

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Stay tuned for future developments and hope we can have a Worlds event in 2020. In the meantime stay safe and get ready for the start of the summer splits.

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