The Mid-Season Invitational was added to League of Legends’ esports circuit in 2015 as Riot Games looked to add another international tournament to the calendar. Since then, various different teams have lifted the prestigious event. Find out who they are here.
MSI has seen a few different formats and has expanded as the years have gone on to include more teams and matches. In its first iteration, only the champions of the Spring Split from the big five regions in North America, Europe, China, South Korea and Taiwan/Hong Kong, along with the winner of the International Wildcard Invitational, attended the main event.
Since then, the tournament has grown to include 13 teams from major and minor regions. It has also experimented with multiple formats over the years, with the latest featuring a Play-In Stage that feeds into a Bracket Stage.
Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
While the LCK has been the dominant region at the World Championships, the LPL has reigned supreme at MSI events. This trend has only continued with JDG’s win at MSI 2023. G2 Esports are the only Western team to have claimed an MSI trophy, with the LCS still winless after two final appearances, in 2016 and 2019.
The MSI champion may not go down in the history books in the same way as the Worlds winners, but the teams that have won the mid-season tournament have still earned international acclaim.
MSI winners by year
Year
Team
Roster
2015
Edward Gaming
Koro1, Clearlove, PawN, Deft, Meiko
2016
SK Telecom T1
Duke, Blank, Faker, Bang, Wolf
2017
SK Telecom T1
Huni, Peanut, Faker, Bang, Wolf
2018
Royal Never Give Up
Letme, Mlxg, Karsa, Xiaohu, Uzi, Ming
2019
G2 Esports
Wunder, Jankos, Caps, Perkz, Mikyx
2021
Royal Never Give Up
Xiaohu, Xiaobai, Wei, Crying, GALA, Ming
2022
Royal Never Give Up
Bin, Wei, Xiaohu, GALA, Ming
2023
Jingdong Gaming
369, Kanavi, Knight, Ruler, Missing
Note: The 2020 Mid-Season Invitational was canceled because of the global health crisis.
MSI winners by number of trophies
With China’s domination of MSI, multiple players from the country have repeated wins at the event. LCK giants T1 also won the tournament in two consecutive years, adding even more trophies to the team’s cabinet.
Number of MSI titles
Players
3
Xiaohu, Ming
2
Bang, Wolf, Faker, GALA, Wei
1
Koro1, Clearlove, PawN, Deft, Meiko, Letme, Mlxg, Karsa, Uzi, Duke, Blank, Huni, Peanut, Wunder, Jankos, Caps, Perkz, Mikyx, Xiaobai, Cryin, 369, Kanavi, Knight, Ruler, Missing
MSI winners by country
With teams from China raking up MSI champion trophies, you’d think that the majority of players who have taken home the title would be from the country. However, China loves importing pros from South Korea like is standard in other parts of the world, leaving the two regions neck-and-neck with how many players have been able to claim the title.
It is also worth noting that, without G2 Esports, this list would only include three countries: South Korea, China and Taiwan.
Country
Players
South Korea
Duke, Blank, Faker, Bang, Wolf, Huni, Peanut, PawN, Deft, Ruler, Kanavi
China
Letme, Mlxg, Xiaohu, Uzi, Ming, Xiaobai, Wei, Crying, GALA, Bin, 369, Knight, Missing
Taiwan
Karsa
Denmark
Wunder, Caps
Poland
Jankos
Croatia
Perkz
Slovenia
Mikyx
This article will continue to be updated as more MSI winners are crowned. You can find the full list of League of Legends World Championship winners here.
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