South Korea is set to host this year’s Mid-Season Invitational, sources told Dot Esports. This will be the country’s first time hosting an MSI and marks the first League of Legends international event in South Korea since 2018. The venues and cities for MSI 2022 remain unknown for the time being.
Until now, Korea was the only major region that didn’t host an MSI, and the last international tournament in the country was Worlds 2018. South Korea had some of the most severe COVID-19 restrictions worldwide, which turned organizing a major event during the pandemic into a complex affair.
Hosting the MSI in South Korea also marks its return to a major country after the disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years. The pandemic forced Riot to cancel the MSI in 2020 and go for a restrictive “bubble system” in China for Worlds 2020. The company adopted the same system in Iceland in 2021 for both the MSI and Worlds.
South Korea’s first MSI is a milestone for the most successful country in League history. MSI 2022 is expected to kick off between the last week of April and the first week of May, based on the event’s dates in the previous years. The tournament will feature the champions of 12 major leagues around the world.