The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational was the sixth

Mid-Season Invitational The Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) is an annual ''League of Legends'' international tournament hosted by Riot Games in the middle of years, since 2015. It is the second most important international ''League of Legends'' tournament aside from the ...

(MSI), a

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-organised tournament for ''

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'', a

multiplayer online battle arena Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of Gamer, players compete on a structured battlefield, each controlling a single Player character, character with distinctive abilit ...

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. The tournament was the culmination of the 2021 Spring Split and the first international competition of Season 11. Each of the 12 premier ''League of Legends'' leagues had a team representing them. This was the first edition in which all competitive regions began in the same stage of the tournament, unlike previous years where the winners of the minor leagues had to win play-in matches to face teams from the larger regions. "Starts Right Here" was the tournament's theme song, put together by Foreign Air, and Kenny Mason. The tournament was hosted in

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from 6 to 23 May 2021. All of the matches were held in the

Laugardalshöll Laugardalshöll (; also known as Laugardalshöllin and Laugardalsholl Sport Center) is a multi-purpose sports and exhibition venue located in the Laugardalur district of Iceland's capital Reykjavík. The complex consists of two main venues, a s ...

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due to restrictions from the

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from China defeated the Worlds Champion

DWG KIA Dplus KIA (DK), formerly known as DWG KIA and DAMWON Gaming (Abbreviation, abbr. DWG), is a South Korean professional esports organization. Its ''League of Legends'' team competes in the League of Legends Champions Korea, LCK, the top-level lea ...

from South Korea 3–2 in the final, winning their second MSI title.

Format

The format for 2021 replaces the play-in stage used from 2017 to 2019 with a group stage featuring all regions. The 12 teams were seeded into 3 groups from 4 seeding pools. This is the first time that teams from Europe ( LEC), South Korea ( LCK) and China ( LPL) will not automatically qualify for the second stage (known as the ''rumble stage'', formerly the group stage of the main event) but have to compete with all remaining teams. The top two teams in each group in ''group stage'' qualify for the ''rumble stage'', a six team double round robin. The top four teams of the ''rumble stage'' advance to the single elimination ''knockout stage''. The winning team earns their region an additional bid to the

2021 League of Legends World Championship The 2021 ''League of Legends'' World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game ''League of Legends''. It was the eleventh iteration of the ''League of Legends'' World Championship, an annual inte ...

Qualified teams

The number of regions decreased from 13 at MSI 2019 to 12, due to the merger of Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau ( LMS) and Southeast Asian ( LST) professional leagues into the PCS for 2020. Pools of group stage are determined by the achievements of regions during the MSI and Worlds events from the two years prior.

Venue

was the city chosen to host the competition. All matches will be played at

without spectators.

Group stage

* Date and time: 6–11 May, begins at 13:00

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* Twelve teams are drawn into three groups, with four teams in each group * Quadruple round robin for group A, double round robin for groups B and C; all matches are best-of-one * If two teams have the same win–loss record and head-to-head record then a

tiebreaker In games and sport, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is any method used to determine a winner or to rank participants when there is a tie - meaning two or more parties have achieved a same score or result. A tiebreaker provides the additional criterion ...

match is played * Top two teams will advance to the rumble stage; bottom two teams are eliminated ;Group A ;Group B ;Group C

Rumble stage

* Date and time: 14–18 May, begins at 13:00

* Six teams will play in a double round robin; matches are best-of-one * If teams have the same win–loss record and head-to-head record, then

matches are played for first, second, and fourth place * Top four teams will advance to the Knockout stage; bottom two teams are eliminated

Knockout stage

* 1st place team from the rumble stage chooses between 3rd and 4th to be their semifinal opponent (DK chose MAD). * Single elimination, matches are best-of-five

Semifinals

Finals

Ranking

(*) Not including tie-break games.

Notes

References

External links

2021 Mid-Season Invitational Rules
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mid-Season Invitational, 2021 2021 multiplayer online battle arena tournaments May 2021 sports events in Europe

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Esports in Iceland