Riot officially cancels MSI 2020 - expands team pool for Worlds

Riot Games has confirmed the League of Legends 2020 Mid-Season Invitational won’t be happening this year. 

After a rumour from Travis Gafford claimed the event would be cancelled, Riot’s global head of esports, John Needham, has confirmed this year’s MSI will no longer go ahead. 

In a statement on their website, Needham said: “Based on the modelling of our external risk advisors, however, it appears highly unlikely that either the global spread/impact of COVID-19 or the restrictive travel and public gathering policies responding to the crisis will abate significantly by the time of MSI’s current planned dates (July 3-19).

“With this model plus input from health authorities, local governments, regional leagues and teams, travel experts, and other stakeholders, we have made the difficult decision to not hold MSI in 2020. 

G2 Esports won last year's MSI (Picture: lolesports) 

“We believe this decision was necessary to ensure the health and safety of the players, teams, crew, partners, media and fans.”

MSI was originally postponed from its traditional May date to July earlier this year, with this cancellation, while disappointing, pretty much expected. 

Riot also state they’re working on “alternative events and activities” for the future in collaboration with other teams - although no specifics are mentioned. 

The developer’s focus is now on Worlds 2020, which is still on course to take place at Shanghai Stadium in China later this year.

Due to the cancellation of MSI however, Riot have expanded the qualifying team pool for Worlds 2020. You can check out how seeded team distribution works for each region below.

• LPL and LEC - four teams each
• LCK and LCS - three teams each
• PCS and VCS - two teams each
• CBLOL, TCL, LJL, LLA, OPL, LCL - one team each