Game publisher Riot Games has announced the venue for the upcoming League of Legends Mid Season Invitational (MSI) hosted in Chengdu, China.
MSI Chengdu 2024 will be held at the Chengdu Financial City Performing Arts Centre from May 1st – 9th.
This is not the first time that an MSI has been held in China, with the country hosting the event on three occasions. However, it is the first time that Chengdu has played host to the event.
Teams which attend the Chengdu Financial City Performing Arts Centre will be able to compete in front of fans at every single stage. Although this has always been the case for MSI, this isn’t common for tier-one events in many other esports titles. For example, the ongoing PGL Copenhagen CS2 Major only has fans in attendance for the playoffs.
Ahead of this event, Riot Games announced major format changes to MSI as the winner of the tournament is now guaranteed a place at Worlds, which will count as an extra spot for the winning team’s region. The second best-performing region will also secure an additional seed for its region at Worlds.
This is not the only change between this year and last year’s Mid-Seasonal Invitational as 2023’s edition, which was held in London, had 13 teams in attendance as opposed to this year’s 12. This year the 12 teams will be made up of two teams from each of the LPL, LCK, LCS, and LEC whilst one team from the LLA, CBLOL, PCS, and VCS will attend.
The second seeds from LPL, LCK, LCS, and LEC will compete with the teams from the other regions in two best-of-three double-elimination brackets with the winners and runner-up of each bracket advancing to the next stage. There these teams will join the remaining four teams in a single best-of-five double-elimination bracket all the way until the Grand Final.
Tickets for the event are not yet live, but will go on sale from April 2nd.