The
2015 Mid-Season Invitational was the first edition of the tournament created by Riot Games as part of its competitive
League of Legends circuit. Designed as a mid year event connecting the Spring and Summer Splits of the regional leagues, it featured six teams and crowned
as its inaugural champion after a 3-2 victory over
SK Telecom T1 in the Grand Final.
Location, Date, Cash Prize and Format
The 2015 MSI was held from May 7 to 10 at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center in Tallahassee, Florida, USA. Six teams first competed in a best-of-one group stage, with the top four advancing to the bracket stage, a single-elimination bracket played in best-of-five series.
The entire tournament was played across four days of competition and featured a $200,000 prize pool, with $100,000 awarded to the winner, $50,000 to the runner-up, and $25,000 to each of the two semifinalists (Fnatic and ahq eSports Club).
Participating Teams
Of the six participating teams, five qualified directly for the Main Event: Spring champions from the NA LCS in Team SoloMid (TSM), Korea Champions in SKT T1, the LPL in EDG, the LMS in ahq, and the EU LCS in Fnatic. Turkey’s Beşiktaş Esports, meanwhile, qualified through a tournament called the International Wildcard Invitational.
The tournament was held at the Volkswagen Arena in Istanbul, and featured the second seed from the Garena Premier League, the former Southeast Asian league. The region’s top seed, Saigon Fantastic Five, was unable to attend due to visa issues and was replaced by the Bangkok Titans.
Turkey’s TCL was therefore represented by Beşiktaş, while the Japanese LJL sent DetonatioN FocusMe, SLTV, the predecessor to the LCL, sent Hard Random, Brazil’s CBLOL was represented by INTZ, Latin America by Kaos Latin Gamers, and Oceania by the Chiefs Esports Club.
Tournament Progression
The tournament began with a group stage dominated by Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and his teammates, who won all five of their games. They were followed by EDG at 4-1, ahq at 3-2, and Fnatic at 2-3, with the four teams advancing to the semifinals. TSM finished fifth with a 1-4 record, while Beşiktaş failed to win a single game throughout the tournament.
Fnatic during the MSI 2015. Credit: Riot Games
In the semifinals, Fnatic’s roster, featuring big names such as Heo “
Huni” Seung-hoon, Bora “
YellOwStaR” Kim, and Kim “
Reignover” Yeu-jin, pushed T1 all the way to five games before the Korean side eventually prevailed 3-2. On the other side of the bracket, EDG comfortably swept ahq 3-0. In the Grand Final, the Chinese side and their star AD carry Kim “
Deft” Hyuk-kyu went the distance once again, winning 3-2 to lift the first-ever MSI trophy.
Team’s Rosters
EDward Gaming
- Tong "Koro1" Yang
- Ming "Clearlove" Kai
- Heo "PawN" Won-seok
- Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu
- Tian "Meiko" Ye
SK Telecom T1
- Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-hwan
- Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong
- Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok/Lee "Easyhoon" Ji-hoon
- Bae "Bang" Jun-sik
- Lee "Wolf" Jae-wan
Fnatic
- Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon
- Kim “Reignover” Yeu-jin
- Fabian "FEBIVEN" Diepstraten
- Pierre "Steeelback" Medjaldi
- Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim
ahq eSports Club
- Chen "Ziv" Yi
- Xue "Mountain" Zhao-Hong
- Liu "Westdoor" Shu-Wei
- Chou "An" Chun-An
- Kang "Albis" Chia-Wei
Team SoloMid
- Marcus "Dyrus" Hill
- Lucas "Santorin" Tao Kilmer Larsen
- Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg
- Jason "WildTurtle" Tran
- Ham "Lustboy" Jang-sik
Beşiktaş Esports
- Berke "Thaldrin" Demir
- Muhammed "Theokoles" Işık
- Isak "Energy" Pettersen Fjell
- Tomáš "Nardeus" Maršálek
- Mustafa Kemal "Dumbledoge" Gökseloğlu
