So after a few years of watching LoL streams, the east coast of the United States was finally thrown a bone with an actual League event, with the arrival of the first annual Mid-Season Invitational. The good news was that it was within reasonable driving distance for me, however the bad news was that it was held in Tallahassee, Florida, and most notably, on Florida State campus.
Florida State blows, but since it would be nice to actually attend and see a notable League event, sacrifices had to be made.
Anyway, as a whole, I thought the event was pretty good. MSI proved that there are in fact, serious LoL fans on the east coast, and hopefully this will be a promising sign that perhaps more things might come to the east coast; maybe not such a shithole like Tallahassee, and perhaps a place that’s easily accessible by anyone via plane, car or internationally, has facilities to host, as well as an existing culture, like say one of the Collegiate teams, like in, oh, I don’t know, like Atlanta*cough?
For something that was touted as “merely” an exhibition, and with “no bearing on Worlds,” MSI certainly delivered a heavy-hitting event, with the top seeds from five notable League-playing regions (North America, Europe, Korea, China, Taiwan) as well as sixth, wild-card tournament winning squad from Turkey that were certainly all playing like it was for an actual world championship.
And although I left disappointed that Korea’s SK Telecom T1 squad didn’t win it, getting defeated by the diabolical Chinese squad no less, I still thought the event as a whole was pretty solid. Random thoughts and observations about MSI, because I’m feeling lazy, and a list seems like an easier approach:
- Riot really needs to understand how to put on a tournament. I was only there for the bracket stage and finals, but in no world should the #1 seed ever perform first, which is precisely what happened on the bracket day, where #1 SK Telecom played against #4 Fnatic to start the day. The series ended up going the distance in a hard-fought, exciting series, with SKT ultimately winning, but by the time it was over, fans were exhausted and over watching more League, and despite the fact that I’m fairly ambivalent towards the Chinese and Taiwanese teams, they deserved a better audience than the skeleton one that remained for their series. GG RITO
- Despite the fact that Edward Gaming won the entire tournament, I would say that Fnatic comes out of the tournament looking the best, as they were a squad that was undoubtedly talented, but with a starting five consisting of basically four rookies, were not expected to go far. Instead, they take SK Telecom to the brink of elimination, before succumbing to a necessary, but withheld tactic SKT was hoping to save for the finals. However, in defeat, Fnatic shined bright, and has gained some valuable experience for the next split, and possibly Worlds.
- The Turkish team, Besiktas, also earned a great deal of respect for showing up and playing in spite of the monumental odds stacked against them. They fulfilled the 0-5 showing that was expected of a team from a weak region going up against the powerhouses of the world and North America, but they did so with grace, humility, and a great attitude, understanding that they were there for the experience, and no real unlofty ambitions. Fans respected them, and with the experience gained, will probably dominate their respective regions and the Wild Card field, and probably be back at Worlds.
- Conversely, North America’s hype train Team SoloMid probably walks away from MSI looking shittier than anyone else. Going 1-4 and failing to advance out of the group stage was about almost the worst possible scenario for them.
- Saw a Taiwanese supporter carrying a sign stating “all teams need Koreans except Taiwan,” and he’s right. Among the six teams, one was the Korean team, China starts two Koreans, Europe starts two Koreans, North America starts one Korean, and the Turks would probably start two Koreans if they could afford to pry two away from Korea.
- At an event like MSI, sitting on the floor, fairly close to the stage was actually kind of brutal. You have to look up to watch the screen, and it’s like the olden days of olden movie theaters, of sitting in the front row, and having to crane your entire head up at the sky for hours on end. I honestly think, it would’ve been more comfortable to watch from further back, or the actual general seating itself.
- The Pros vs. Casters game was great exhibition that I found refreshing to watch. Whereas in the competitive games, basically the same pool of 14 champions was used out of over 126 characters available, and admittedly got stale.
Anyway, I got nothing else really to say. MSI was a pretty fun event, even if it was in white trash land of Tallahassee.
And here are the pictures.
