T1 to meet Estral Esports as Mid-Season Invitational begins in China

The first international League of Legends tournament of the year kicks off Wednesday in Chengdu, China as eight teams, including Korea’s T1, begin their bids to advance past the first stage of the Mid-Season Invitational.

T1 holds an event with Odyssey fans in partnership with Samsung Electronics on April 28 in Chengdu, China ahead of the Mid-Season Invitational. [YONHAP]

The first international League of Legends (LoL) tournament of the year kicks off Wednesday in Chengdu, China as eight teams, including Korea’s T1, begin their bids to advance past the first stage of the Mid-Season Invitational.

T1, the defending World champions, will face Mexico-based Estral Esports in their first match of the Play-In Stage on Wednesday evening at the Chengdu Financial City Performing Arts Center.

Korea’s Gen.G, who defeated T1 3-2 to win the 2024 League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) Spring Split to earn an automatic spot in the second-round Bracket Stage, is the only other team from Korea’s top-tier LoL circuit at the MSI. They will play their first match of the tournament next week.

A total of eight teams are competing in the Play-In Stage, split into two groups of four, to play best-of-three series in a double-elimination format. Two losses will guarantee an exit from the tournament.

Also competing against T1 in Group A of the Play-Ins are FlyQuest, a North America-based team affiliated with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, and Taiwan-based PSG Talon, co-owned by Hong Kong’s Talon Esports and French football club Paris Saint-Germain.

In Group B are Chinese team Top Esports, Brazilian team LOUD, London-based Fnatic and Vietnamese team GAM Esports.

The winner and runners-up of each group will advance to the Bracket Stage where the top eight teams, playing best-of-five series, will be whittled down to a final champion.

Alongside Korea’s Gen.G, who will begin their MSI bid in the Bracket Stage, Chinese-team Bilibili Gaming, Berlin-based G2 Esports and North American team Team Liquid also earned byes to the top eight after winning their respective spring leagues.

This year’s MSI winner will earn a coveted spot in the 2024 LoL World Championship, in addition to the grand prize of $50,000, one-fifth of the total purse.

The runners-up will earn $40,000, the third-place winners will win $30,000 and the fourth-place finishers will take home $25,000. The other teams qualified to the MSI will get consolation prizes in decreasing increments.

Last year’s MSI champion JD Gaming, based in China, failed to qualify for this year’s tournament.

A Korean team has not won the MSI since 2017, when T1 defeated G2 Esports 3-1 in Brazil. The highest finish for a Korean team at the MSI since then was runners-up in 2021.

The MSI will run through May 19, and the LCK’s Summer Split will begin June 7.

The top three finishers in the LCK’s Summer Split will earn a spot at the 2024 World Championship, which will take place across England, Germany and France from Sept. 25 to Nov. 2.

T1’s Wednesday match against Estral Esports will begin at 8 p.m. Korea time and can be streamed online.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]