Why is the League of Legends MSI the LPL’s tournament?
In League of Legends, South Korea almost always wins the World Championship. However, it’s the LPL that has won more than half of the Mid-Season Invitationals since their launch in 2015. So why is MSI the LPL’s tournament? And what can we expect for the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational next week?
The LPL has won more MSI titles than the LCK
First off, let’s have a look at the history and stats for the two regions at the LoL Worlds and Mid-Season Invitational.
| Year | MSI Winner | MSI Runner-up | Worlds Winner | Worlds Runner-Up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Fnatic (LEC) | against All authority (LEC) | ||
| 2012 | Taipei Assassins (LCP) | Azubu Frost (LCK) | ||
| 2013 | SK Telecom T1 (LCK) | Royal Club (LPL) | ||
| 2014 | Samsung White (LCK) | Star Horn Royal Club (LPL) | ||
| 2015 | EDward Gaming (LPL) | SK Telecom T1 (LCK) | SK Telecom T1 (LCK) | KOO Tigers (LCK) |
| 2016 | SK Telecom T1 (LCK) | Counter Logic Gaming (LCS) | SK Telecom T1 (LCK) | Samsung Galaxy (LCK) |
| 2017 | SK Telecom T1 (LCK) | G2 Esports (LEC) | Samsung Galaxy (LCK) | SK Telecom T1 (LCK) |
| 2018 | Royal Never Give Up (LPL) | Kingzone DragonX (LCK) | Invictus Gaming (LPL) | Fnatic (LEC) |
| 2019 | G2 Esports (LEC) | Team Liquid (LCS) | FunPlus Phoenix (LPL) | G2 Esports (LEC) |
| 2020 | DAMWON Gaming (LCK) | Suning (LPL) | ||
| 2021 | Royal Never Give Up (LPL) | DWG KIA (LCK) | EDward Gaming (LPL) | DWG KIA (LCK) |
| 2022 | Royal Never Give Up (LPL) | T1 (LCK) | DRX (LCK) | T1 (LCK) |
| 2023 | JD Gaming (LPL) | Bilibili Gaming (LPL) | T1 (LCK) | Weibo Gaming (LPL) |
| 2024 | Gen.G (LCK) | Bilibili Gaming (LPL) | T1 (LCK) | Bilibili Gaming (LPL) |
| 2025 | Gen.G (LCK) | T1 (LCK) | T1 (LCK) | KT Rolster (LCK) |
Notes:
- The Season 1 Worlds didn’t have teams from China or Korea attend.
- MSI started in 2015, but was held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
| Statistic | MSI | Worlds |
|---|---|---|
| Tournament wins | 4 wins for the LCK, 5 wins for the LPL | 10 wins for the LCK, 3 wins for the LPL |
| Head-to-head in Best of 5s | 7 wins for the LCK, 9 wins for the LPL | 17 wins for the LCK, 8 wins for the LPL |
| LPL’s match score against T1 (Bo5s only) | 6-3 | 0-12 |
| LPL’s match score against 2024-2025 Gen.G (Bo5s only) | 0-4 | 0-0 |
While the LCK has won all but three of the World Championships they’ve participated in, the Mid-Season Invitational is an entirely different story. The LPL has actually won half of the events, more than South Korea did.
In fact, China regularly stops Korea in their tracks at MSI. The LPL has beaten LCK teams in nine out of 16 Bo5s. If we remove from the equation the overpowered 2024-2025 Gen.G, the LPL is 9-3 against the other Korean teams.
At Worlds, the LCK notoriously beats the LPL most of the time, in 17 Bo5s out of 25. However, most of this comes from T1, who has played almost half of Korea’s matches against China at this event. The LPL actually has a winning record against the rest of the LCK, at 8-5 against the other Korean teams.
Why is the LPL better at MSI?
China’s strength at MSI compared to Worlds doesn’t come from some curse or a small sample size. Several factors make both tournaments differ, and those don’t favor each region equally.
The tournament duration
Worlds is a tournament that spans over four to five weeks. MSI, on the other hand, only lasts two and a half weeks. However, both of them take place on a single patch.
For Mid-Season Invitational, this is nothing out of the ordinary. Regional playoffs are all held over a single patch, for a similar duration. The event goes on for slightly longer than the patch’s duration, and that’s only enough time for players to get used to it.
The World Championship is different, though. When pros spend an entire month on the same patch, the meta gets to evolve. The picks that initially looked strong have answers appear, and players find new strong champions that got overlooked.
Two famous examples of this are 2015 and 2021. In 2015, Darius was the go-to top laner, initially being picked almost every game. Then, come playoffs, teams almost never picked him anymore – and when they did, they usually lost. In his place, Fiora rose through the ranks.
Similarly, Shen started as a Fnatic-only pick. In the playoffs, he eventually turned into a highly contested support.
At Worlds 2021, the opposite happened. Amumu was seen as the best support, with Miss Fortune as his duo. Once the play-in concluded, he nearly fully vanished from the meta.
The tournament duration also makes Worlds become a marathon that MSI isn’t. Some teams feel the fatigue from weeks of competition, while others are unaffected.
The pressure from Worlds: Heavy is the crown
The LoL World Championship is the main event of the season. An entire year’s worth of competition all leads to that moment, and failure means having to wait one whole year to try again.
The prestige comes from the community and from Riot. Riot makes it a much bigger show with the venue sizes, the prize pool, and the ceremonies.
As for the community, World winners are remembered far more than MSI’s. Not many people even realize that Royal Never Give Up is the organization that won this event the most (thrice). Not to mention the media coverage around Worlds.
With this comes pressure, and all teams play worse under pressure. However, they don’t play worse equally, and some manage it much better. “Some” mainly being T1.
T1’s existence
All stats regarding the LCK and LPL would be very different if it weren’t for Faker’s team. The LPL would have a winning record against the LCK otherwise.
T1 happens to always play better at Worlds, for several reasons. One is that they get to focus on the tournament, with less time spent in media days. The other is that all other teams play worse from the pressure, while they don’t. At MSI, T1 isn’t this unbeatable threat, and the LPL can suddenly win.
Will China win the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational?
In recent years, it was Gen.G who gave China their strongest competition at MSI. In fact, Gen.G gave South Korea their first MSI since 2017. With them not attending in 2026, the playing field changes drastically.
China has won the most recent international with Bilibili Gaming’s First Stand victory. At MSI 2026, they might very well be favorites. T1 and Hanwha Life Esports will obviously give them a run for their money and G2 Esports is the wild card, but BLG has reasonable odds of achieving the fourth step of their 2026 golden road.
In fact, prediction market Kalshi has Hawnha Life as the favorite at a 37 percent chance, but Bilbili are not far behind at 31 percent.
Featured image credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games
Wasif Ahmed
Wasif Ahmed is the Lead Esports Editor for WIN.gg. He has been covering esports for nearly eight years, although his gaming journey started much earlier, when he was just four years old and was introduced to Road Rash on a dusty PC. Hit him up on X to talk about esports, why partnership models are the best fit for esports games, or if Halo 7 has finally been announced.
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