2025 Mid-Season Invitational
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The 2025 Mid-Season Invitational will be the tenth iteration of the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), a
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-organised tournament for ''
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'', a
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video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
. The tournament will be held in
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
, Canada, and will be the first edition of the tournament to feature the Fearless Draft format, and the first to be staged under the game's new competitive esports calendar since 2025. The tournament will be held between 27 June and 12 July 2025. 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. Gen.G of the ''League of Legends'' Champions Korea (LCK) are the defending champions.


Host selection

During the media day for the 2024 ''League of Legends'' World Championship Final at
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in
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,
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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 Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. Canada was originally slated to host the semi-final stage of the 2022 ''League of Legends'' World Championship at the
Scotiabank Arena Scotiabank Arena (SBA), formerly known as Air Canada Centre (ACC), is a multi-purposed arena located on Bay Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the home of the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and t ...
,
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
. However, due to the impact of the
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on securing multi-entry visas, Riot Games announced the State Farm Arena in
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,
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as its replacement venue.


Qualification

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. 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 The League Championship Series (LCS) is the semifinal round of postseason play in Major League Baseball which has been conducted since 1969. In 1981, and since 1995, the two annual series have matched up the winners of the Division Series, ...
(LCS), Campeonato Brasileiro de ''League of Legends'' (CBLOL), and Liga Latinoamérica (LLA).


Qualified teams

All qualified teams will also qualify for the ''League of Legends'' tournament of the 2025 Esports World Cup. On 26 May 2025, G2 Esports of the LEC became the first team to qualify for the tournament, with CTBC Flying Oyster of the LCP following suit on 1 June. Six days later on 7 June, GAM Esports of the LCP and Movistar KOI of the LEC completed the list of qualified teams in their respective regions. The LPL's Anyone's Legend became the first team from the region to qualify on 9 June, with Bilibili Gaming also confirming their qualification four days later on 13 June. Defending champions Gen.G of the LCK advanced to the tournament on 13 June, with T1 of the LCK, FlyQuest of the LTA North, and FURIA of the LTA South completing the list of qualified teams on 15 June.


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. 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.


Format

All matches in the tournament across both play-in and bracket stages will be best-of-five series. Four of the ten teams will start in the play-in stage — the second seeds from the LCP, LEC, and LPL, and the LTA South champions. Teams will compete in a GSL-style double-elimination bracket and were seeded based on their region's performance during the 2025 First Stand Tournament, with the first two teams earning two wins advancing to the bracket stage. The two qualified teams from the play-in stage will join the top two seeds from the LCK, the first seeds from the LCP, LEC, and LPL, and the LTA North champions, where they will compete in a double-elimination bracket. Matchups will be determined by a draw at the conclusion of the play-in stage. The winning team of MSI 2025 will qualify for the 2025 ''League of Legends'' World Championship, while the second-best performing region will also have an additional slot in the said tournament. The 2025 Mid-Season Invitational will be the first edition of the tournament to adopt the Fearless Draft format. Fearless Draft is an evolution of the traditional pick/ban system wherein champions picked in previous games of a best-of-series become unavailable for both teams in subsequent games. While Fearless Draft was originally intended to only be used during the first split of the season, Riot Games announced prior to the First Stand Tournament final that the rules would apply for the rest of the year after it received "overwhelming" positive feedback during the period.


Play-In Stage

* Date and time: 27-29 June, began at 16:00 CST (08:00 UTC) ** Excluding games scheduled on 27-28 June, which will begin at 12:00 PDT (19:00 UTC). * Four teams placed in a GSL-style double-elimination format * Seeding based on results from the 2025 First Stand Tournament ** 2nd place: LEC; 3rd place: LCP; 4th place: LPL; 5th place: LTA * All matches are best-of-five. * Teams that earn two wins will advance to the bracket stage


Bracket Stage


Draw

Following the conclusion of the play-in stage, a draw will be conducted for the bracket stage. The eight qualified teams are divided into the following four tiers: Tier 1 * Gen.G * Movistar KOI Tier 2 * CTBC Flying Oyster * Anyone's Legend Tier 3 *
FlyQuest FlyQuest is a professional esports organization based in the United States that was founded on January 6, 2017. It is owned by the ''Viola family'', owners of the Florida Panthers. FlyQuest was originally founded after the acquisition of the ' ...
* T1 Tier 4 * Play-In Team 1 * Play-In Team 2 In the bracket stage, teams in Tier 1 will face teams from Tier 2. Meanwhile, teams from Tier 2 will go up against teams from Tier 3.


Bracket

* Date and time: 1-12 July, will begin at 17:00 PDT (00:00 UTC) ** Exlcuding games scheduled on 3-5 May, which will begin at 12:00 PDT (19:00 UTC). * Eight teams will be drawn into four tiers where teams in Tier 1 will face teams from Tier 2, while teams from Tier 2 will go up against teams from Tier 3 * Teams from the same region are to be placed on opposite bracket sides * Double elimination; all matches are best-of-five.


Marketing


Slogan

The tournament's official
slogan A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan or a political, commercial, religious, or other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the public or a more defined target group ...
, ''Ignite the Fire Within'', was unveiled on 17 June 2025 alongside a format explainer video on YouTube.


Sponsorship


Global Partners

*
Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...
* Esports World Cup *
Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...
* Coinbase * HyperX * Mastercard *
Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...
* HP Omen * Opera GX *
Oppo Oppo (sometimes stylized as OPPO) is a private company, private China, Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong. Founded in 2004, its major product lines include Oppo phones, smartphones, Smart device, sm ...
*
Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks created and owned by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With a market share of 43%, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2020, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and ...
* Secretlab *
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Notes


References

{{League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational 2025 multiplayer online battle arena tournaments Esports in Canada Esports in North America