The Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) is one of League of Legend‘s (LoL) highlight on its calendar. It happens to be the second largest international competition, just next to the World Championship itself. And this year’s tournament is going to be a doozy especially if you support regional.

Two teams from our neighbours are joining the tournament for the chance to strike gold. The teams are Phong VÅ© Buffalo from Vietnam and team MEGA from Thailand, and they will be facing big names such as SK Telecom T1 and Vega Squadron throughout the tournament.

With Phong Vu Buffalo bringing the Southeast Asian name, we’re surely going to root for them.

The tournament will have the Spring champs from multiple regional leagues coming from all over the world in the battle for glory. This year is extra special particularly because of the four most popular regions, North America, Europe, China, and Korea, are all sending their star squads.

When and Where?

The Season 9 MSI will be taking place in Vietnam and Taiwan. The play-in stage will run from 1 May to 7 May in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, before moving to Hanoi for the main event group stage from 10 May to 14 May. The playoffs will take place in Taipei, from 17 May to 19 May.

The tournament will be streaming on Riot Games’ Twitch channel.

Watch live video from Riot Games on www.twitch.tv

Main Event Group Stage

The main event of the invitational will have six teams in the group stage with a double round-robin format, with the top four advancing to the playoffs.

Three teams are directly seeded into the group stage based on their region’s past results in international competition, with three more will qualify through the play-in stage.

Three teams have already qualified for the main event. They are;

• G2 Esports – LEC Champions
• Invictus Gaming – LPL Champions
• SK Telecom T1 – LCK Champions

Play-In Stage

The other three teams for the main event will qualify through a Play-In stage featuring 10 teams. The first round of the Play-In will have eight teams from the emerging regions. Two of them will advance to a second round featuring the champions of the LCS and LMS. Three of the round two teams will advance to the main event.

Round 2 teams

• Team Liquid – LCS Champions
• Flash Wolves – LMS Champions

Round 1 teams

• 1907 Fenerbahçe – TCL Champions
• Phong VÅ© Buffalo – VCS Champions
• Vega Squadron – LCL Champions
• MEGA – LST Champions
• Bombers – OPL Champions
• DetonatioN FM – LJL Champions
• INTZ e-Sports – CBLOL Champions
• Isarus Gaming – LLA Champions

With big names like SK Telekom T1 and Team Liquid as well as our neighbours, Phong VÅ© Buffalo and MEGA, this Mid-Season Invitational might be one of the biggest and most interesting tournaments we’ve ever seen in League of Legends, mainly because we have two Southeast Asian teams facing off with other star teams in the Invitational.

Here’s us wishing Phong VÅ© Buffalo and MEGA the very best for their Mid-Season Invitational journey.