The joy of beating BF didn't last long, for UF teams, the Spring Playoffs championship is just a key or stepping stone to the MSI Mid-Season Invitational, LPL can be said to be one of the top regions in the world at the moment, but LCK is also not far behind, and LCS is also eyeing it. Huo Ran Wen enaA'com

Even the most hopeless wild card,It may not be impossible to take advantage of the rise,Russia、Japan、Spain and other regions that have only been opened in recent years have also been born after two or three years of edification, and a group of masters who are enough to call for wind and rain in the Hanbok master king bureau have also been born,Although compared with the old strong areas such as LPL、LCK、LCS is slightly insufficient,But it may not be impossible to overtake it in time。

As an MSI Mid-Season Invitational Tournament that ranks with the Series S World Championship and the All-Star All-Star Game as the top three events in the world every year, although it is not as valuable as the larger and more formal World Finals in the minds of players, it has naturally attracted the attention of players from all over the world as an annual global event.

The start time of the MSI World Finals is almost at the beginning of May, and because of the large number of teams in the LPL division, it was not until April 13 that the UF team was able to defeat the BF team and qualify for the promotion, and in order to prepare for the MSI Mid-Season UF team also launched a new training schedule, and as the coach of the UF team, Tang Hao has to continue to understand the personnel layout and tactical arrangements of the professional teams from various major regions around the world in addition to various visa procedures.

The 2021 MSI Mid-Season Invitational has a total of 15 teams from 15 regions around the world, of which the five permanent regions are LPL, LCK, LCSNA, LCSEU and LMS, while the remaining 10 teams are from Oceania, Southeast Asia, CIS, Vietnam, Brazil, South Latin America, Japan, North Latin America and other miscellaneous wild card regions.

The competition is divided into play-in rounds, group stages and final knockout rounds, of which the regional finalists will be determined according to the results of the mid-season championship and the global finals in the past two years, LPL, LCK, and the four regions have direct byes without having to go to the play-in tournaments and wild card teams to fight desperately to qualify for the group stage, while the rest of the teams from the other eleven regions need to participate in the play-in tournament to compete for the only two places to advance to the group stage.

After that, the 2 shortlisted teams and a total of 6 teams from the 4 divisions of LPL, LCK, and 4 divisions will compete in the double round-robin group stage of BO1, and the top 4 teams in the points will enter the knockout round; The last two are eliminated; The team that wins the group stage can pick their opponents in the knockout round, with both the semi-finals and the final being BO5.

This time, the venue of the competition was selected in Japan-Tokyo, and China-Shanghai, in which the play-in and group stages were held in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, while the knockout round was still held in Shanghai, China, because the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, South Korea, Vietnam, Russia, Brazil and other countries have hosted the MSI Mid-Season Invitational Tournament in the past, so it is not too surprising that the final venue of this MSI Mid-season Invitational Tournament was chosen in China again.

As for the selection of the play-in tournament and the group stage, it is also because the tenacity of the Japanese service in recent years is indeed a bit moving, not to mention that the venue of the competition is not determined by which region is stronger, otherwise it will only be held in China or South Korea.

To put it bluntly, the MSI Mid-Season Invitational, the Series S World Championship, and the All-Star Game are just large-scale events held by Riot to expand the influence and popularity of League of Legends around the world, and even the World Championship of League of Legends in 10 years has only eight teams and only about 100,000 viewers.

Today, there are as many as 18 teams participating in the World Finals, and the attention to League of Legends events is also rising, the number of viewers has changed from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions, just last year's 2020 World Finals BF team vs. SSW's BO5 championship final exceeded 70 million people, and the number of online viewers reached 36.44 million, greatly exceeding the S9 Finals, and this number once again broke the record of all esports competitions.

Japan is rich in stand-alone manufacturers,League of Legends as an online battle MOBA game at the beginning of the player audience was not much,But in the past two years, this situation has been a lot better,First, because the charm of League of Legends is indeed quite unbeatable,More importantly, because Japan, as an e-sports weak country,It is really unexpected to be able to win the top four at the beginning,It has also attracted the attention of many local players in Japan。

If the Japanese team enters the tournament every year as a tourist team, maybe it will be like that, the key is that they really reached the semifinals, which is like the national football team playing in the final of the World Cup.

The greater the exposure, the more the audience and the greater the influence of the game, so it makes sense for Riot to choose the S11 MSI Centralized Invitational Tournament as the play-in and group venue in Tokyo, Japan, after all, all games will not dislike the number of people who play it, and it doesn't matter how well the game is played or how to play it, what matters is how many people play it and how long it can be played.

Finally, regarding the prize money of the S11 MSI Mid-Season Invitational, the number of prize pools has accumulated to a full 520,000 US dollars, which is just 5.2 million US dollars, and the champion will receive 2.6 million US dollars, the runner-up will only be half of the champion, that is, just 1.3 million US dollars, and the third and fourth places will be evenly divided into half of 1.3 million US dollars, that is, 650,000 US dollars, and so on, and so on, each of the two teams in the second place will receive half of the previous half of the prize money until the final end.

Twenty days of training time is fleeting, during which the UF team also played a lot of training matches with many teams in the LPL region, and on April 28, the whole team of the UF team rushed to Tokyo, Japan in advance, and when they got off the plane, they were surrounded by countless Japanese LJL fans, although the number of players in League of Legends in Japan is average, but it is also a million player base, and it is not too strange that some of them will like the strong new team UF.

After meeting with the enthusiastic fans, the UF team also rested for two days in Tokyo, the nominal capital of Japan, which is still very worth visiting, but because the tournament is approaching, the UF team only ate some well-known food and turned all their attention to the preparation for the game.

After a short two-day break, the MSI Mid-Season Invitational Tournament also quietly came, but the UF team in the play-in tournament a few days ago was directly exempted from participating, but even so, as the coach of the UF team, Tang Hao still brought the whole team members to the scene to watch the game, in addition to the fans who also crossed the ocean to watch the game, although they can watch the live broadcast on the Internet, but some scenes are undoubtedly more exciting only when they are immersive.

"A lot of people ......"

Zhuge looked at the crowded scene in the Tokyo Stadium and couldn't help but sigh.

The play-in and group stage venues are located at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo, Japan, formerly known as Tokyo Stadium, which can accommodate a full 50,000 spectators, which is also a relatively large sports venue.

The Japanese organizers obviously spent a lot of energy and time on the MSI Mid-Season Invitational Tournament, so the entire venue was filled with various surrounding scenery of League of Legends, as if the organizers had materialized various two-dimensional elements in League of Legends into the real world.

"I didn't expect this year's MSI mid-season event to be in Japan."

After casually taking the notebook handed over by a Japanese female fan for signature, Mu Ye, who returned it, sighed inexplicably.

Once upon a time, the Japanese server was not much different from other wild card teams in League of Legends, but now it can be regarded as having a certain influence, although it is not brilliant enough, but it is not as obscure as it used to be.

"Huh?"

Xu Yamian, who was carrying a satchel, noticed that Xu Yanan's gaze was condensed in a certain place at the same time, and he couldn't help but look at it too, and then couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise.

"Is that a member of the OB team? They actually came...... too."

Shang Moze also noticed Ma Jinlong and his party walking together in the distance.

"OB Troop?"

Mu Wenyan couldn't help but be attracted by the OB team.

"Are they here too?"

Coach Tang Hao was also a little surprised that the OB team would come to watch the MSI Mid-Season Invitational at such a time.

As the only all-Chinese team in history that has won the S series global finals championship on behalf of LPL, the status of the OB team in the hearts of many old players is undoubtedly extremely lofty, after all, no matter how great the influence of the BF team is, no matter how terrifying Coco Li's strength is, to be honest, one less S championship will always make people feel that something is missing.

On the whole, the OB team is undoubtedly a stronger existence than the BF team, even after many years, this situation may not change much, defeating the BF team has made the UF team rush enough to struggle, so the OB team that has not yet had a confrontation is naturally three points of awe and five points of curiosity.

"Ho, look who I found......"

Su Yu suddenly stood still and said jokingly.

"It's ...... them"

Yu Huan couldn't help but be stunned when he heard the words and looked in the direction where Mu and the others were standing.

"As a team participating in the LPL region, it's normal to take a look in advance, even if it's just a group of wild cards, you have to know about it, right?"

Fuyi is very normal for meeting everyone in the UF team, after all, the UF team is a participating team, and it is normal to learn in advance about the opponents you may meet in the group stage and prepare in advance, after all, although the possibility of capsizing in the gutter and losing to a wild card is small, it is like going out on a rainy day and being struck by lightning, but there will always be a few who are really struck by lightning, isn't it?

Ma Jinlong and Simple on the side were quite quiet, and Simple naturally focused on Mu's body, last year, Mu rushed into the LPL at the speed of a rocket, and at the same time won the championship of the spring playoffs with the help of the ready-made perfect pedal of the UF team.

Although he didn't want to admit that Mu was more talented and stronger than him, he could only be convinced after watching the final battle BO5 between the UF team and the BF team in the playoffs.

But after all, it has been out of the professional arena for too long, even if the rank continues, the high score ranking is like drinking water, but the level of the professional game is still very huge, even if the professional soldiers maintain normal training after leaving the army, they can't be compared with the army at all, this is the biggest gap.

Although Ma Jinlong is also observing Mu, he has not forgotten to observe the entire team of the UF team, the UF team can defeat the BF team is not only the credit of Mu alone, if the other people in the UF team are not good enough, then even if Mu plays better than Coco Li, it will be in vain.

"The summer season is almost ready to meet."

Bai Yitong is also very interested in the UF team that can defeat the BF team, and at this time, he can't help but look forward to the possibility of becoming an opponent with the UF team in the near future.

"There is no need for the summer season, the Demacia Cup should be able to meet."

Ma Jinlong retracted his gaze, and had a clearer impression and memory of the existence of the UF team in his heart.

The first time they met, the two sides looked at each other and then separated, but the members of the two teams also secretly remembered this encounter in their minds, after all, it may not be long before they will meet in the same arena and compete for the final championship.

The Play-In Tournament began on May 2, with the play-in stage using a double-round-robin single-match winning system, which ended after four days, while the host Japan region also successfully qualified, and the knockout stage of the Play-in Tournament was based on the standard BO5 format.

After two days, the ace team GR team from Japan successfully advanced to the real group stage with the QAQ team from LMS, and this result obviously made the Japanese audience feel extremely excited, although it was only into the top six, but it was not easy.

A total of eleven teams fought hard, and in the end, only the GR team and the QAQ team managed to stand out, and the cruelty is undoubtedly impossible to ignore, and although the overall strength of the wild card team is relatively uneven or weak, at least in terms of the effect of the game, it is still very successful and exciting.

The audience was fascinated and undoubtedly looked forward to the arrival of the real group stage later, but the group stage did not officially start until three days later, that is, on May 11, so the audience could only suppress the excitement in their hearts and wait for the arrival of the game.

The format of the group stage is a double round-robin of a single group, which means that each team in the group has to play two BO1 matches against the remaining five teams, until the last four teams can advance to the final knockout stage after the last two teams are eliminated with points, so there is no need to draw lots for grouping.