With the Spring seasons for all five major regions wrapped up and the International Wildcard Invitational coming to a close, the teams are now set for this year’s Mid-Season Invitational. The champions from North America, Europe, Korea, Taiwan, and China are all invited to compete, along with the winners of the IWCI. The format for the event will be a double round robin group stage involving all six teams. The top four teams from the group stage will advance to the bracket stage, which will be best-of-5 all the way through. This year’s MSI will differ from last year’s, as it will now determine seeding at the 2016 World Championship. With all that said, let’s take a look at the teams attending the event.
Top: Lee "Duke" Ho-seong
Jungle: Kang "Blank" Sun-gu / Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong
Mid: Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok
ADC: Bae "Bang" Jun-sik
Supp: Lee "Wolf" Jae-wan
The reigning World Champions were able to continue their dominance and win another LCK title. After Worlds 2015, SKT did struggle at KeSPA Cup, losing to Korean Challenger team, Ever, and their struggles continued early in the Spring season of LCK with the team finishing in seventh place after the first round robin. However, the team would regain their form after swapping out junglers at IEM Season X World Championship.
With Blank in the jungle, the team swept through the tournament, not dropping a single game. Their success would continue in the second round robin of LCK Spring, with the team ending the regular season in third place. They made it to the finals where they would defeat the ROX Tigers 3-1, claiming their third LCK title in a row. Four of SKT’s players attended last year’s MSI and lost in the final to EDward Gaming. For Faker, an MSI title is the only one missing from his mantlepiece and a win at this year’s MSI would only further cement his legacy as the greatest LoL player of all time.
Top: Jang "Looper" Hyeong-seok
Jungle: Liu "Mlxg" Shi-yu
Mid: Li "xiaohu" Yuan-Hao
ADC: Wang "wuxx" Cheng / Zhu "NaMei" Jia-Wen
Supp: Cho "Mata" Se-hyeong
After having to requalify for the 2016 LPL Spring season, RNG made major changes to their roster. They added former Samsung White teammates Mata and Looper, as well as former members of King. With a group of young Chinese players being guided by a veteran Korean in Mata, RNG was able to finish first in a loaded Group B during the LPL regular season, giving them a playoff bye and putting them straight through to the semifinals.
Towards the end of the season, RNG began incorporating NaMei into the lineup and would use both ADCs during the playoffs. After a close five game series in the semis against Team WE, RNG took down EDG in the finals winning the LPL Spring title and sending them through to MSI. With the Spring Playoff victory, Mata joined Gu "imp" Seung-bin, Choi "Acorn" Cheon-ju, and Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu as the only players to have won titles in both Korea and China.
Top: Yau "MMD" Li-Hung
Jungle: Hung "Karsa" Hau-Hsuan
Mid: Huang "Maple" Yi-Tang
ADC: Hsiung "NL" Wen-An
Supp: Hu "SwordArt" Shuo-Jie
Following a quarterfinal finish at last year’s Worlds, FW top laner Chou "Steak" Lu-Hsi retired before the start of the LMS Spring Season. The team replaced Steak with MMD and Shen "Rins" Po-Ju, with MMD playing the majority of games. MMD picked up the mantle of Steak, as the team’s low economy top laner focused on facilitating and enabling his teammates to carry.
FW’s second place finish in the regular season placed them directly into the semifinals where they would 3-0 Machi E-sports. After having some trouble against ahq e-Sports Club during the regular season, FW 3-0'd them in the finals on the back of some superb play from Maple, who was voted the Best Mid during the regular season and MVP of the finals. Maple impressed at last year’s Worlds where he was one of the standout players for FW. As the main carry for his team, Maple will have to standout out once again for FW to find success at MSI.
Top: Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek
Jungle: Kim "Trick" Gang-yun
Mid: Luka "PerkZ" Perkovi?
ADC: Kim "Emperor" Jin-hyun
Supp: Glenn "Hybrid" Doornenbal
At the end of last year G2 added Korean imports Trick and Emperor to the lineup, moving former Unicorns of Love jungler Kikis to the top lane. In their very first EU LCS season as team, G2 would dominate the competition and finish the regular season in first place. Carried by the EU LCS MVP, Trick, and Rookie of the Season, PerkZ, G2’s jungle-mid duo was incredibly dangerous as they roamed the map together aggressively tower diving and pursuing kills.
Despite their regular season success, some experts doubted whether the playoff pressure would get to the team, with rookies in two positions. However, PerkZ and Hybrid continued their superb play in the semis and finals as G2 went on to win the EU LCS Spring title. After taking down the best mid laners EU had to offer, a lot is expected of PerkZ, and he goes into his first international competition at MSI trying to join a long line of great EU mids.
Top: Darshan "Darshan" Upadhyaya
Jungle: Jake "Xmithie" Puchero
Mid: Choi "Huhi" Jae-hyun
ADC: Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes
Supp: Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black
After removing Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng and replacing him with Stixxay, many pundits believed that CLG would suffer from a severe lack of talent and carry potential. The team’s last-place finish at the IEM World Championship seemed to validate those beliefs. However, the constant split push pressure of Darshan and the leadership and shot calling of Aphromoo led CLG to triumph in NA. They would end the regular season in second place, behind the dominant Immortals, and held the distinction of being the only team able to beat Immortals, spoiling their perfect season.
In the playoffs, CLG would win a close five game series against Team Liquid in the semifinal, pitting them against longtime rivals, Team SoloMid, in the finals. During the playoffs, it seemed that CLG were outmatched at times in terms of talent but were still able to overcome their opponents through smart macro play and superior team coordination. They were able to defeat TSM 3-2 in the finals and claimed their MSI slot. After such a disappointing performance at their previous international tournament, CLG has a lot to prove going into MSI.
Top: Berke "Thaldrin" Demir / As?m "fabFabulous" Cihat Karakaya
Jungle: Furkan "Stomaged" Güngör
Mid: Koray "Naru" B?çak
ADC: Nicolaj "Achuu" Ellesgaard
Supp: Mustafa "Dumbledoge" Kemal Gökselo?lu
This Turkish team features some of the member of the Be?ikta? e-Sports Club lineup that attended last year’s MSI, with Thaldrin and Dumbledoge both joining SUP after they acquired Be?ikta?’ spot in TCL. SUP finished the regular season in third place but battled back in the playoffs and claimed the TCL Winter Championship, defeating Be?ikta?.OH in the final and placing them into IWCI. After a three way tie for first place during the group stage, SUP took the tiebreaker and the highest seed for the bracket stage, and a clean sweep of Saigon Jokers in the semis was followed by a 3-1 win over Hard Random in the finals, putting a Turkish team into MSI for a second year in a row.
This will be the second MSI appearance for Thaldrin and Dumbledoge, as they hope to improve on last year’s winless last-place finish. Dumbledoge is known for his playmaking carry support play while mid laner Naru has been great at diving enemy back lines. Dumbledoge made a name for himself in 2015 after picking up a First Blood onto Faker on his birthday. SUP now hope to make a name for themselves by causing an upset and claiming a victory at MSI.
-Images from flickr.com, thescoreesports.com, zaytung.com, and tryhard.cz
-Match Histories from lol.esportspedia.com
