The groups have been determined for the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational, and things are exciting – EU, NA, and OCE will be squaring off in Group C.
Following the LCS semifinal in Houston, Texas, the group draw for the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational in South Korea took place. The groups were revealed for the major tournament, and things are spicy.
Group A
T1 (South Korea)
Saigon Buffalo/GAM Esports (Vietnam)
Team Aze (Latin America)
DetonatioN FocusMe (Japan)
Group B
Royal Never Give Up (China)
PSG Talon (Southeast Asia)
Fastpay Wildcats (Turkey)
RED Canids (Brazil)
Group C
G2 Esports (Europe)
100 Thieves/Evil Geniuses (North America)
ORDER (Oceania)
English-speaking regions square off in Group C
Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the CIS league did not complete their spring split. This means one group at MSI will unfortunately have only three teams. However, the result is going to be fun, as the three English-speaking regions will be squaring off.
European champions G2 Esports will play North America's spring champion, to be determined on April 24th, and the OCE champions ORDER. It's been a while since we saw good NA-EU competition, and as a result group C will be a lot of fun. ORDER are definitely the underdogs, however Pentanet.GG made miracles happen at the Mid-Season Invitational in 2021. ORDER will have to prove themselves better than Europe or North America to repeat that performance.
Groups A and B have a clear favourite
While C is closer, there's a clear top team in groups A and B. The wildcard teams should be little more than warm-up for the two tournament favourites, T1 and RNG. Whether or not T1 can challenge China this year is going to be a big storyline to watch, but in the meantime, even dropping a game for either of these teams in groups would be a failure.
Group A features Vietnam's return to international play after they've missed the last few tournaments. They were a region on the come-up when we last saw them, but it's been a while, so it'll be interesting to see how they perform. In Group B, PSG Talon are always good and could push RNG to their limit.
Stay tuned to Esports.gg for the latest League of Legends news and updates, and coverage of the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational.