2018 Mid-Season Invitational


The 2018 Mid-Season Invitational was the fourth edition of the Mid-Season Invitational, a Riot Games-organised tournament for League of Legends, the multiplayer online battle arena video game. The tournament is the culmination of the 2018 spring split, the first part of 8th season of the game competitive scene.
Each of 14 premier League of Legends leagues have a team representing them; Europe, South Korea, North America and China had their teams automatically admitted into the main event whereas the other 10 leagues will compete among each other in a "play-in" with the top 2 teams advancing to join the main event.
The tournament was hosted in Germany and France from 3 to 20 May 2018. Matches of the play-in and group stages were held in EU LCS Studio in Berlin, while playoffs took place in multi-purpose indoor arena Zénith Paris. Royal Never Give Up are the champions of the 2018 MSI, after taking down Kingzone DragonX in the finals. Uzi was named the MVP of the entire tournament, due to his outstanding performances. The results of the tournament have received numerous international debates and reactions.
The event's finals, where LPL 's Royal Never Give Up took on LCK 's Kingzone DragonX, became one of the most watched eSports matches in history, greatly attributed to China's viewership. The finals were watched by over 127 million unique viewers, while the entire event boasted a total viewing time of over 2 billion hours. The event also became one of the greatest League of Legends' tournaments in history, as well as one of its historical milestones, as a South Korean team was thwarted by a non-South Korean team in a major match for the first time in 3 years.

Qualified teams and roster

Qualified team

, team from Vietnam had qualified for MSI via Southeast Asian league. From 2018, Vietnam region will be separated from Southeast Asia region. The Spring split Champion team from Vietnamese league will qualify for MSI without take part in the Southeast Asian league. Number of regions up to 14.
Based on the result of the MSI and World Championship in 2 years before, 4 teams from Europe, North America, South Korea, and China are started in Main Group Stage, 2 teams from Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau and Vietnam are started in Play-in round 2, 10 remaining teams are started in Play-in round 1. Unlike last year, loser at round 2 will be eliminated because no have round 3 in Play-in Stage.

Roster

Venues

, Paris were the two cities chosen to host the competition.
Berlin, Germany Paris, France
Play-in Stage & Main Group StagePlayoffs Stage
EU LCS StudioZénith Paris
Capacity: 174Capacity: 9,000

Play-In Stage

Round 1

First place teams of each group advance to round 2 of the stage
;Draw
Only 2 teams of each pool is drawn into a group.
Pool 1Pool 2
Gambit Esports Ascension Gaming
KaBuM! e-Sports Dire Wolves
Rainbow7 Kaos Latin Gamers
SuperMassive eSports PENTAGRAM

;Group A
#Team~GMBR7KLGASCWL±
1 Gambit EsportsGMB~2−02−01−1514
2 Rainbow7R70−2~1−12−0330
3 Kaos Latin GamersKLG0−21−1~1−124−2
3 Ascension GamingASC1−10−21−1~24−2

;Group B
#Team~SUPKBMDWPGMWL±
1 SuperMassive eSportsSUP~1−12−02−0514
2 KaBuM! e-SportsKBM1−1~1−12−0422
3 Dire WolvesDW0−21−1~1−124−2
4 PENTAGRAMPGM0−20−21−1~15−4

Round 2

Random draw. Winners of the series advance to group stage. Losers will be eliminated.
With highest ranking of emerging regions, Vietnam get directly spot in 2018 World Championship Main Group Stage for Summer split Champion.

Group stage

Double Round Robin. Top 4 teams advance to Knock-out stage.
#Team~RNGFWKZFNCTLEVSWL±
1 Royal Never Give UpRNG~1-11-12-01-12-0734
2 Flash WolvesFW1-1~2-01-11-12-0734
3 King-Zone DragonXKZ1-10-2~1-12-02-0642
4 FnaticFNC0-21-11-1~1-11-146-2
5 Team LiquidTL1-11-10-21-1~1-146-2
6 EVOS EsportsEVS0-20-20-21-11-1~28-4

China, Europe, South Korea and TW/HK/MO will get pool 1 in 2018 World Championship Main Group Stage for Summer split Champion. North America and Vietnam will get pool 2.

Knockout stage