Riot Games is reportedly canceling the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational

Olivia Richman Published 21/04/2020

There’s a rumor going around that this year’s Mid-Summer Invitational won’t be happening after all.

On an episode of Hotline League, esports personality Mark “MarkZ” Zimmerman, Cloud9 midlaner Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer, and League of Legends journalist Travis Gafford were discussing the crazy LCS spring season when Gafford dropped quite a bombshell on his co-hosts.

“I’m going to drop a rumor here. This will come as no surprise to anybody. The rumor, I’m fairly confident in, is that there is no MSI,” Gafford said.

MSI future unknown

In February, Riot had announced that MSI was being postponed in an attempt to keep fans and players safe, as well as the competitive integrity of League of Legends. At the time, Riot’s global head of esports, John Needham, said they were “committed to making the event happen,” but no further details were revealed.

Despite Riot’s concern for integrity and safety, League of Legends fans were frustrated with the update. Many felt that, without a date or location, there was no point in even addressing viewers.

In mid-March, Riot came back with another update. This time, they also had a new date for MSI: July. But a July timeline had a lot of fans confused, since that was in the middle of the Summer Split. Riot also provided new start dates for reach region’s Summer Split to better accomodate the change.

“Shifting the tournament to the summer offers the best chance to see travel restrictions lifted, allowing teams from leagues around the world to travel and compete safely,” Needham said of MSI, which was originally going to be held in May between the Spring and Summer Split.

Despite Riot’s reasoning, fans weren’t pleased with this new date and neither were League of Legends pros.

“I feel they should cancel. I don’t think we will be able to travel anywhere anyway,” FlyQuest’s Lucas “Santorin” Larsen told WIN.gg.

Will MSI be canceled?

Riot has yet to announce if MSI will be canceled. The delay to mid-July was the last the League of Legends developers spoke of MSI, but Gafford is usually never wrong in his rumors.

The journalist also recently shared that Team Liquid may be trading Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng before the Summer Split. While Team Liquid hasn’t made any statement of their own regarding this news, Doublelift did tweet a frowning face soon after Gafford’s video went viral.

????
— Yiliang Peng (@TLDoublelift) April 16, 2020

Many League of Legends fans are already prepared for a year with no MSI.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

View full profile