The League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational is ongoing this week as teams from around the world compete to be the best. It’s not as prestigious as the World Championship at the end of each season, but it’s still a serious tournament which sees all the best teams competing. It’s an odd one this year as the games take place in Busan, South Korea, the international English broadcast happens from Germany, and the Chinese team, Royal Never Give Up, play from Shanghai.
That’s all down to COVID, with restrictions in China being heavy enough that were the team to travel to Korea, they wouldn’t be able to get back into the country and be ready to play in time for the next split of competition post-MSI. It means that various technologies have been implemented by Riot so that RNG can compete on a fair playing field with those in Busan.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work. In a post, Riot explained that the consistent 35 ping from Shanghai was meant to be matched in Busan for teams playing against RNG. Unfortunately, the emulation of this ping level in Busan was not consistent, leading to teams having variable ping against RNG. This was determined to be unfair, and the games are now being replayed. RNG originally won all three, and look set to do so again.
Responses have been varied. Most neutral fans believe it is the only fair thing to do, and gave props to Riot for admitting their mistake and fixing it the best way they can. RNG and their fans, on the other hand, are less impressed. Rough translations are available on the League subreddit – fans say RNG should quit the tournament, and their manager is annoyed about all the additional effort they’re having to go to.
The MSI group stage is due to end on Sunday, and so far the tournament hasn’t had any big surprises – teams from major, large regions have beaten those from smaller, less skilled regions almost universally. It’s likely that NA, Korean, Chinese, and European teams will all advance, alongside PSG Talon from the Pacific Region (South-East Asian countries not already included above) and Vietnamese Saigon Buffalo. Favorites remain T1 from South Korea, who have so far lost all of eight games and zero matches this entire year.
Written by Ben Barrett on behalf of GLHF.
