For the last two years, the global COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the live events landscape in unprecedented ways. Throughout, our goal has been to produce safe, fair events with as little disruption as possible to the overall fan and pro player experience. Today, the hurdles presented by pandemic-related travel restrictions and constraints are still very real and dynamic with impacts felt across our ecosystem.
Currently, the LPL (our Chinese regional league) is facing ongoing pandemic challenges, and as a result, the league’s MSI representative will be unable to travel to Busan, Korea. However, after extensive diligence performed by our technology, events, and competitive operations teams, we are able to allow the qualifying LPL team to compete remotely from China. The team will play from either their team training facility or from the LPL Arena in Shanghai, in accordance with local health and safety protocols.
Many factors were considered before implementing this decision including safety, infrastructure, location, and competitive integrity. In addition to the LPL having the infrastructure necessary to support remote play, the ping from China to Korea is manageable. To keep the competition fair, we will be using a network latency tool to maintain a ping as close to 35ms as possible for all teams throughout the competition. This same tool was used to maintain ping between China and Korea for the LPL vs. LCK Showdown during the 2020 Mid-Season Cup. To ensure the competitive integrity of the competition, all MSI teams will be able to practice and scrim at this ping, and we will deploy referee support and monitoring throughout the tournament in both Korea and China.
These past two years have been turbulent, but the passion we share for League has been constant. To our fans, teams, pros, and partners, thank you for staying nimble with us and for your support as we’ve navigated these unchartered waters. We are extremely excited to welcome the best LoL Esports teams in the world to MSI on May 10th, and will have information and updates about the event, tickets, and more at LoLesports.com and our social channels as we count down the days to MSI 2022!
