After witnessing yet another series sweep by the LPL today, League of Legends fans are now preparing for the next set of exciting matches at the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational—and they’ll all be featuring the collision of some familiar foes.
The next round will feature rematches between the 2023 Spring Split finalists for the LCS, LPL, and LCK, much to the chagrin of fans who have been advocating for more cross-regional games at international events.
This set of finals rematches was locked in after JD Gaming’s destructive three-game stomp over Golden Guardians on May 12, which has booked them another fateful meeting against Bilibili Gaming in the next round. BLG earned their place in the second round with a crushing sweep against Cloud9, sending them into the lower bracket to fend off the revenge of the Guardians.
Related: East vs. West gap worsens at MSI 2023 despite C9’s hyper-aggressive early game vs. Bilibili Gaming
Meanwhile, T1 and Gen.G are set to collide in a rematch of the 2023 LCK Spring Finals, after both teams found sweeping success against their European matchups at MSI. In fact, the only Western team to win a game during the bracket stage so far has been G2 Esports, who managed to pick up one win against Gen.G earlier this week. They are also the only non-finalist team coming into the next round after getting eliminated by MAD Lions during this past LEC postseason.
For some fans, this coming weekend might not be exciting since we’ve already witnessed all of these matchups before. But for others, this could be a great way for some teams to avenge their past mistakes.
The event’s new format and recent results have also guaranteed that all four regions will be facing off against their rival region at least once during this bracket, with the LCK and LPL facing off in the upper bracket and the LEC and LCS facing off at least once during the lower bracket run.
Related: MSI 2023: Scores, standings, and results
You can catch the first of these matches tomorrow when Gen.G and T1 collide on Summoner’s Rift at 6am CT.
