**2015 MSI**
**Location:** Tallahassee, United States
**Winner:** Edward Gaming
**Photo description:** The members of Edward Gaming hug each other after winning the inaugural Mid-Season Invitational.
The first Mid-Season Invitational was a direct response to the lack of global tournaments outside of the League of Legends World Championship. As LoL grew larger in multiple regions, third-party tournaments ceded to Riot-run leagues (later, Riot-run franchised leagues) leaving fewer occasions for the best teams from their respective regions to compete against each other. Held in Tallahassee Florida, the first MSI was a test to see if it would whet the appetite a bit for more international events and while the venue was small compared to the MSI held in Shanghai the next year and subsequent MSI tournaments, it was remarkably competitive and set a variety of narratives going into the 2015 World Championship.
Following the eradication of sister teams in South Korea, a new league (as opposed to a tournament) format for the freshly-minted LCK, and a mass exodus of South Korean pro players to China's LoL Pro League, the stage was set for a heated battle between the two in the form of LPL's Edward Gaming and LCK's SK Telecom T1. In this particular bout, Edward Gaming emerged victorious thanks to a clever Game 5 finals draft that used Ming "Clearlove" Kai's Evelynn and Heo "PawN" Won-seok's Morgana to stymie Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok's then-undefeated LeBlanc. It was a Chinese team's first major international success since World Elite won IPL 5, despite LPL teams having made it to world championship finals previously.
Anecdotally, I also remember hearing a story about how all of the new T1 players to international events — namely, players formerly from SK Telecom T1 S like Bae "Bang" Jun-sik and Lee "Wolf" Jae-wan — followed veteran SK Telecom T1 K and world championship jungler Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong around, adhering to his sleep schedule in order to deal with jet lag. This was also the time of Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon and Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin on a Fnatic team that evolved dramatically together over that year. It was the start of something for a lot of teams, and the start of a new international tournament for League of Legends.
**2016 MSI**
**Location:** Shanghai, China
**Winner:** SK Telecom T1
**Photo description:** Counter Logic Gaming's Zaqueri "aphromoo" Black and Choi "huhi" Jae-hyun sit laughing on a couch in a post-match interview.
Although people may now look at this MSI as the continuing height of T1 dominance — where then-T1 coach Kim "kkOma" Jeong-gyun stubbornly stuck with jungler Kang "Blank" Sun-gu against community clamor for Bengi when T1 looked shaky in groups — I remember Counter Logic Gaming making it to the finals.
Given the resurgence of TSM through the LCS playoffs, many expected CLG to lose in the LCS spring finals that year and even more expected them to completely flop on the international stage. This team was the epitome of the phrase "greater than the sum of their parts" with multiple team members coming out afterwards and saying that they haven't been on a team with similarly strong communication and trust ever since.
They made it to the finals where yes, they were swept by T1, but in making it had already proved legions of doubters wrong. Just as older NA fans say that there will never be another team like 2013/14 Cloud9, there will also never be another team like this 2016 CLG.
**2017 MSI**
**Location:** Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
**Winner:** SK Telecom T1
**Photo description:** The members of 2017 SK Telecom T1 are showered in confetti as they gather around the MSI trophy.
In addition to the memory that finally the passionate fanbase of Brazilian League of Legends had their own home international event, the creative flexibility of the Gigabyte Marines stole the show during the group stages of MSI 2017.
And yet, the continued dominion of SK Telecom T1 is what I remember most about this event, probably because it was the last international event that the organization would win after putting together a string of MSI and Worlds titles from 2013 through 2017 until they finally lost a world championship final this same year. It's difficult for teams and players to be consistent over one year of League of Legends, never mind four that also included condensing two sister teams into one, tournament restructuring, and volatility brought on by players leaving en masse for other regions. Still, T1 and in particular, Faker, persevered. What in that moment was yet another accolade for the T1 trophy case became the end of the only thing approaching a dynasty that League of Legends has ever had.
**2018 MSI**
**Location:** Berlin, Germany and Paris, France
**Winner:** Royal Never Give Up
**Photo description:** LPL team Royal Never Give Up bows to the crowd at 2018 MSI.
It's easy to forget how dominant Royal Never Give Up were in 2018 because their loss to G2 Esports in the 2018 Worlds quarterfinals hangs over any success they had this year. Let this photo be a reminder of just how much RNG accomplished in 2018, including the end to then-RNG bot laner Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao's LPL title drought. After winning the LPL title to qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational that year, Uzi and RNG went on to take the entire tournament, despite Kingzone DragonX (formerly Longzhu Gaming) coming in as tournament favorites.
After watching Uzi in the LPL for so many years, it was amazing to watch him and RNG not only win their domestic championship but this MSI and have multiple members be a part of their gold-medal-winning Asian Games team later that summer.
**2019 MSI**
**Location:** Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Taipei
**Winner:** G2 Esports
**Photo description:** Rasmus "Caps" Winther and the rest of G2 Esports wave to the crowd in Taipei at the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational.
There's a lot to remember about this MSI. The fact that myriad LPL enthusiasts were repeating ad nauseum that LPL teams would dive a Sona/Tahm Kench or Sona/Taric lane into oblivion, and then watching it happen in real time when Invictus Gaming beat SK Telecom T1 in 16 minutes. The fact that Team Liquid of all teams managed to off Invictus Gaming in the semifinals. The fact that this was the recently-rebranded LEC's inaugural year and they kicked it off with an international tournament victory.
While 2018 was the year of RNG despite them being unable to win a worlds title, 2019 was similarly the year of G2 Esports, who won everything they could that year and also faltered at the finish line during worlds. However, for most of the year, it was G2 who were setting the League of Legends meta for all teams in the world with clever champion and role swaps. A fun aside that demonstrates their flexibility is that, if you include Rift Rivals, every single G2 starter that year played Pyke in at least one professional match.
This small wave from Rasmus "Caps" Winther to the crowd captures the odd, infectious energy that this G2 team had.
**2020 Mid-Season Cup**
**Location:** Seoul, South Korea and Shanghai, China (online)
**Winner:** Top Esports
I have several moments for this year, the first being that high-profile individuals and teams were able to make this tournament happen at all. This was during the first global wave of the COVID-19 coronavirus, with MSI (planned to take place in the US city of Los Angeles) having been pushed back several times until it was inevitably canceled due to the pandemic. The 2020 Mid-Season Cup involved only the top LPL and LCK teams, battling against each other in an online tournament with artificially inflated ping to make things as fair as possible. This took some getting used to for all players — I can still see FPX jungler Gao "Tian" Tian-Liang's mistimed Kindred ults in my mind — but it was still as competitive of a tournament that could be had given the circumstances. Top Esports emerged victorious, setting them up as one of the favorites going into the 2020 World Championship.
**2021 MSI**
**Location:** Reykjavík, Iceland
**Winner:** Royal Never Give Up
**Photo description:** Damwon KIA stands on volcanic soil with their backs to the camera. Showmaker is highlighted in green in the center.
This one is a bit personal and not at all gameplay-related. As an interviewer, it's easy to let the content machine grind you to dust. It's easy to ask the questions that people want responses to in order to validate their opinions on the game. It's easy to ask players about how they're feeling moments after they win or lose. It's easy to ask players, "How are you enjoying [country/city tournament is being held in]," and sometimes you'll receive good answer to all of these questions, player and context depending. Most of the time you'll receive a decent answer with clippable parts for Twitter or Reddit or whatever you're aiming for in terms of engagement.
Except for that country/city question. Even before a global pandemic, players had very little time to explore outside of their hotel rooms due to grueling practice schedules.
That's why I want to credit whoever it was on the LoLesports features team who made a comfortable enough environment and setting for Damwon KIA mid laner Heo "ShowMaker" Su to open up about how he genuinely feels post-World Championship victory. His answer was a heartfelt admission of pressure and relief.
"Since our team is getting a lot of high expectations I think victory has become a natural thing," ShowMaker said. "Something I am obligated to achieve. I don’t know since when, but now after winning it’s more like, ‘I’m just relieved we won.’” He goes on to say that his best moment with Damwon was when they qualified to the LCK from Challengers Korea — the beginning of an already illustrious career.
Looking out at a cheering crowd, shiny plastic confetti in the hair and crushed underneath shoes, many players come to the same, oddly-empty conclusion after winning a major tournament like the world championship. Once that fades, what awaits is often out of your control (offseason roster changes, patch and game changes), along with a stifling pressure far different from an initial push towards a common goal. Although Damwon KIA did not win the 2021 MSI tournament, ShowMaker's words and dazzling individual performances have stuck with me to this day.
**2022 MSI**
**Location:** Busan, South Korea
**Winner:** TBD
This year’s MSI is set to take place in Busan, South Korea starting on May 10. Tune in to catch the action and experience first-hand which moments will be written in history. Images for the event will go up on [riotgames.com/esportsmedia][1] when the tournament begins!
[1]: https://riotgames.com/esportsmedia
