League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational Event Has Been Canceled

Riot Games announced on Thursday that the annual League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational event [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

Riot Games announced on Thursday that the annual League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational event has been canceled due to conroavirus concerns. The event was previously delayed from May into July in hopes that it's still be able to happen amid other cancelations and delays of major events, but Riot Games has now said it doesn't foresee concerns around the coronavirus pandemic and regulations in place to soften enough before then to hold MSI this year. There aren't currently any confirmed plans for an online event to be held to replace MSI, though Riot Games said it's looking into options for alternatives.

The latest on MSI was shared in an update from Riot Games this week that recapped the past changes made to the event in hopes that it'd be able to happen as planned. By evaluating risks and keeping recent developments and regulations in mind, Riot said it's decided not to hold the event this year.

"Based on the modeling 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)," Riot said. "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. We believe this decision was necessary to ensure the health and safety of the players, teams, crew, partners, media, and fans."

In the coming weeks, Riot said it hopes to have more news for players about possible alternatives to MSI to take place this year. Many companies – Riot included – have opted for online-only events to replace their plans, so while it sounds like MSI isn't happening in any form, perhaps there will be another type of event to take its place.

Some bright sides of the event's cancelation is that all the teams competing in League's various regions can now focus on their Summer Split schedules without any MSI disruptions. Riot also said its global esports team will now be fully focused on this year's World event that's still happening as planned based on what's been said in the latest update. It's the 10-year anniversary of the competitive scene and is scheduled to take place in China, so expect a big event assuming Riot's future esports plans aren't impacted further by the coronavirus.

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