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The Group Stage of the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational didn’t provide much excitement. Pre-tournament favorites T1, Royal Never Give Up, and G2 Esports dominated their groups, winning all of their games to easily make the Rumble Stage. The teams that were supposed to come in second place per the Esports betting odds also advanced to the Rumble Stage, as anyone who followed the chalk made out well last week. Things will get interesting starting on Friday though as the champions from the six best regions in the world square off in a double round-robin.
League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational Championship Odds at SugarHouse Sportsbook
T1 -250
Royal Never Give Up +175
G2 Esports +500
PSG Talon +8000
Evil Geniuses +10000
Saigon Buffalo +15000
There is a massive gap between the top three teams at this competition and the bottom three teams. That is fully evidenced by the League of Legends betting odds that you see above. Despite the long odds, there will be considerable value in one of the three longshots that are currently over 80-1 as four teams will advance to the semifinals.
T1 deserves to be the odds-on favorite at the Mid-Season Invitational considering their dominant play throughout 2022. They didn’t drop a single match in the LCK on their way to an 18-0 record, and they only lost one map in the playoffs. The three-time world champions and two-time MSI champions have been the most impressive team at this tournament too.
Faker has been exceptional on his standard array of champions, and Zeus has been strong in the bottom lane on either weak side tanks or strong picks. The most interesting thing to watch going forward is the play of Keria in support though. Keria has an 8.6 KDA through six games, and he has played a lot of unusual champions at the position. We have seen Nami, Rumble, Pyke, and Wukong, and that will make it difficult for opponents to gameplan against him.
The only other team that has multiple MSI championships is Royal Never Give Up. RNG won MSI in 2018 and 2021, and they had a little extra practice after Riot made them replay their first three games due to ping issues. They didn’t show much in the Group Stage, as they looked to finish every match as fast as possible, but we do know that Gala is strong in the bottom lane. Wei has been very solid with a 12.6 KDA, but top laner Bin can be punished.
We saw G2 Esports end a Western title drought at the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, and they would love to join T1 and RNG with two titles here. Those three teams have combined to win the last five MSI titles, and it’s very likely they will make it six in a row in a couple weeks.
Flakked has looked exceptionally strong in the bottom lane with a 21 KDA, but he was allowed to take Zeri twice. Caps showed a lot of utility by playing eight different champions in eight games, and Brokenblade looked to prove that he was the “Topfather” with his play. This is easily the most feared Western team in the world.
The longshot with the best chance of winning MSI is PSG Talon. They are not as strong as they were last year when they had River and Maple, but Unified and Kaiwing are a solid bottom lane and Hanabi is carrying a 6.3 KDA in the top lane while doing 28.9% of his team’s damage per Games of Legends.
North American champions Evil Geniuses are the biggest wildcard. They lost all four of their games to G2 and won all four of their games against OCE’s Order to make the Rumble Stage. Danny wasn’t nearly as strong as we expected following his performance in the LCS Finals, and the team largely relies on Inspired to make things happen in the early game.
Saigon Buffalo are the second-best team from Vietnam, but they grabbed the MSI spot after GAM Esports elected to take part in the Southeast Asian Games instead of this event. Taki is a playmaking support that leads the team in KDA and kill percentage, but there isn’t another strong player on this squad.
