FORMAT TL;DR:

MSI will now be a 14-team tournament with representatives from all 14 LoL professional Leagues.

Regional seed placement will be based on previous results from the past two years of MSI and Worlds.

MSI 2018 results will continue to impact Worlds 2018 regional seeds.

TEAMS

At MSI 2018, 14 teams will participate across multiple stages. The recently crowned split champion (Spring Split or Split 1) from each of the following regions will participate at MSI 2018:

• Brazil (CBLOL)
• China (LPL)
• Commonwealth of Independent States (LCL)
• Europe (EU LCS)
• Japan (LJL)
• Korea (LCK)
• Latin America – North (LLN)
• Latin America – South (CLS)
• North America (NA LCS)
• Oceania (OPL)
• Southeast Asia (GPL)
• Vietnam (VCS)
• Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau (LMS)
• Turkey (TCL)

SEEDING

This year, regions will be seeded based on previous results from the past 2 years of MSI and Worlds. We are using 2 years as our sample size for considering competitive results because:

When determining seeding, we prioritize results at Worlds over MSI (as Worlds is the most important tournament of the year, and involves the most teams). We also prioritize recent results over older results as a better indicator of current strength. We evaluated tournament results by the stage achieved, regardless of opponent or game record. Here are the aggregated results from the last two years:  

With the addition of Vietnam, MSI is now a 14 region event. The play-in stage will continue to include 10 teams, meaning the remaining 4 regions’ teams will start in the group stage. The top 4 performing regions from the previous 2 years are KR, CN, EU and NA. Although LMS had the stronger showing at MSI 2017, they were outperformed by NA at Worlds 2017, Worlds 2016 and MSI 2016. As a result, LMS will start in round 2 of the play-in, as they did last year.

VN will also start in round 2 of the play-in. Their performance at Worlds 2017 play-in and group stage, and MSI 2017 play-in and group stage, places their performance clearly ahead of BR, CIS, JPN, LAN, LAS, OCE, SEA, & TUR. All of those regions were significantly outperformed by VN, except TUR, which had a comparable finish at Worlds 2017 but a weaker performance at MSI 2017.

FORMAT

The top two teams from each Play-In Group will advance to the Play-In Knockout round to play a Best-Of-5 against either LMS or VN. The two winners of those games will advance from the Play-In Stage to face-off against LCK, LPL, NA and EU in the Group Stage. The Group Stage will stay the same as it was in 2017 with 6 teams participating in a Best-Of-1 double round robin. The top four teams will advance to the Bo5 Knockout Stage.

IMPLICATIONS FOR WORLDS 2018

As with last year, the results of MSI will impact Worlds 2018 regional seeding placement.

Similar to 2017, the top regions at MSI will secure the top 4 seeds at Worlds Group Stage. Additionally, the highest ranking region of BR, CIS, JPN, LAN, LAS, OCE, SEA, TUR and VN will have their representative team start in the Group Stage. If two regions out of BR, CIS, JPN, LAN, LAS, OCE, SEA, TUR, VN finish top 4 at MSI, both of their representative teams will start in the Group Stage as top seeds, and the Play-In will adjust accordingly, with the worst performing region of CN, EU, KR, or NA having its #2 seed demoted to the Worlds Play-In.