LoL: MSI 2025 Format Unveiled

Mid-Season Invitational 2025 is upon us, bringing a new format — and full Fearless Draft — from June 27th to July 12th. On Tuesday, Riot Games unveiled the details about the format of the competition. Here's everything you need to know about the MSI 2025 tournament format.

This year, MSI will only be a best-of-five series full of Fearless, with ten teams — two from each region — competing against each other and a chance at winning MSI 2025: top 2 seeds from the LCK, LPL, LCP, LEC, as well as the top seeds from LTA North and LTA South.

The MSI Play-in stage will feature the second seeds from LEC, LCP, LPL, and the representative from the LTA South. These four teams will play against each other in a best-of-five, double-elimination bracket with seeding decided by the regional results coming out of First Stand 2025.

The two teams that reach two wins will move on to the Bracket Stage alongside the first seed of each region, and the LCK 2nd seed — seeded directly into the bracket stage due to Hanwha Life Esports's First Stand victory.

In the Bracket stage, the eight qualified teams will be playing another best-of-five double-elimination bracket with matchups decided by a draw. Teams will be split into four different tiers, with those tiers spread out across the bracket, based on First Stand results.

Tier 1 will play against Tier 4, and Tier 2 will play against Tier 3. Just like last year, teams from the same region cannot be drawn into the same side of the bracket making sure we get region-on-region matches. This automatically determines several matchups, which significantly narrows down the number of possible draw results. Of the six potential team combinations advancing from Play-Ins, four scenarios require no additional draw, and the other two only need one final placement decision to complete the bracket.

Since LCK1 and LCK2 can’t be on the same side of the bracket, LCK1 and LTA1 are fixed on one side, while LEC1 and LCK2 are placed on the opposite side. This setup stays consistent across all six possible outcomes.

Riot Games detailed the six possible Play-In scenarios:

Several placements are determined by regional restrictions:

This leaves two matchups unassigned:

A draw is needed to place one Tier 4 team—whichever is drawn will face LCK1. From that one choice, all other matchups cascade by rule to avoid potential second round same-region matchups. For example:

This outcome immediately determines all placements based on the rules above:

This outcome immediately determines all placements based on the rules above:

This outcome also falls perfectly into place by rule:

This outcome also falls perfectly into place by rule:

The winning team of MSI 2025 will secure a spot at Worlds 2025 — though team still has to qualify for its Summer domestic playoffs — and the second best region will secure an additional slot at Worlds.