League of Legends’ 2026 Mid Season Invitational keeps moving at a brutal pace. Games started messy, fights broke out everywhere, and leads swung fast, but the teams that kept calm were the ones closing everything out. So far MSI has been fast, chaotic, and already turning into a tournament where one bad fight can end a series before it even really settles.
stay perfect and one win away from locking in their path deeper into the bracket after another controlled but explosive sweep. On the other side,
are officially out of MSI after back-to-back clean losses, while
fall into the lower bracket after failing to take a single game from T1 despite several moments where they briefly looked alive in fights. Meanwhile
after taking a win against DCG will now face KC in a high stakes elimination series to keep their hopes of reaching the bracket stage alive, setting up a winner takes all NA vs EMEA match.
T1, one step closer to qualification
KC came in hoping to shake the pace after T1’s strong start to MSI, but the LCK representatives had other plans. From the first skirmishes onward, T1 set the rhythm of the series, and KC were forced to play reactively for most of the games.
For everyone's entertainment, the first game started with a messy fight around the river that gave T1 the opening they needed, and they never loosened their grip on the Rift after that. KC tried to group and slow the bleed, but every move only opened more space for T1 to take towers, stack objectives, and put pressure on the map. By the time Baron and Soul were secured for T1, the game was already out of reach for the French org.
The second game looked more competitive and for a while it
felt like KC might actually push the series to a five game. But T1 never panicked and one Baron fight flipped everything, wiping KC's lead in seconds. Even after KC took the Mountain Soul and tried to reset control, T1’s clean teamfights slowly dragged the game back under their control — and suddenly it was match point.
And the last game of the series followed the same pattern of hope followed by collapse. KC found a mid-game Baron play after punishing a T1 misstep and briefly reignited the series, but the response from the reigning World Champions was immediate. T1's sharp positioning and coordination took over once again, and once KC lost control of vision and tempo, the final base siege came fast, closing the sweep and sending T1 forward in the play-ins without dropping a game yet.
DCG, first eliminated
Teams' momentum didn't seem to change much the first two days of MSI 2026, but TL changed that. In the first elimination match of the event, TL seemed to start shaky only to grow its control of the Rift as the match went on, ending with DCG becoming the first team officially eliminated from MSI 2026.
Defined by constant skirmishing across the map, the first game of the series had neither side able to fully gain control of the map early. TL held a slight edge at around the 12-minute mark, but DCG stayed close enough to keep the game unstable. However, TL slowly tightened their control, winning repeated fights and stacking small advantages through cleaner execution in mid game skirmishes. Each successful teamfight and skirmish pushed TL further ahead until they scored the first point of the match.
The second game was much closer — on paper— than the first one, but TL’s control of tempo became increasingly clear. Objectives were traded across the map, yet TL consistently came out slightly ahead, using stronger vision control and sharper map movement, dictating where fights happened. Their willingness to step forward and punish DCG’s positioning kept the LCP representatives under constant pressure, and even when trades looked even, TL’s proactive setups ensured they rarely left empty handed, epsecially on the towers' front. After just over 30 minutes, Tl was on a 2-0 series lead.
By the third game the series fully shifted in TL’s favor. Unlike the rest of the series, in the last game there was no slow build or hesitation as TL came out with early advantages and never allowed DCG space to recover. The early game control snowballed quickly into a one sided map state, with TL maintaining constant pressure until the final moments. It was a clean closing performance that saved the LCS representatives from elimination and set them up with momentum heading into a high stakes matchup against KC for survival at MSI 2026.
