MSI success has rarely translated into a Worlds title

MSI success has rarely translated into a Worlds title

Winning the Mid-Season Invitational may establish a team as one of the best in League of Legends, but history suggests that lifting the MSI trophy is far from a guarantee of success at the World Championship.

With Worlds 2026 approaching, Hanwha Life Esports will attempt to become only the second MSI champion to win both international titles in the same season after defeating Bilibili Gaming 3–2 in this year's MSI Grand Final.

Across the first 10 editions of MSI between 2015 and 2025, only one champion went on to win Worlds in the same year.

Six of the 10 MSI winners reached at least the Worlds semifinals, while three advanced to the final. However, just one completed the MSI-Worlds double, giving MSI champions a 10% success rate when it comes to subsequently lifting the Summoner's Cup.

Strong MSI runs remain a good indicator

While winning MSI has rarely predicted the eventual World Champion, finishing near the top of the tournament has been a considerably better indicator of which teams will contend at Worlds.

There were 40 top-four finishes at MSI across the same 10 seasons, with 19 of those teams later reaching the Worlds semifinals.

The correlation becomes even stronger among MSI finalists. Of the 20 teams that reached an MSI final between 2015 and 2025, 12 went on to reach at least the Worlds semifinals later that year.

At least one team finishing inside MSI's top four has also reached the Worlds final in every season since the tournament was introduced.

The expanded MSI format has made the tournament an even stronger preview of Worlds. Since Riot Games began sending more representatives from the strongest regions in 2023, 66.7% of MSI top-four finishers have subsequently reached the Worlds semifinals.

Previous versions of MSI regularly excluded teams that would eventually become World Champions, including Samsung Galaxy in 2017, Invictus Gaming in 2018, FunPlus Phoenix in 2019, EDward Gaming in 2021, and DRX in 2022.

HLE leads 2026 contenders

Hanwha Life Esports enters Worlds 2026 as the reigning MSI champion after defeating Bilibili Gaming in the final.

However, history also puts the other teams that reached the latter stages of MSI firmly into the conversation.

Bilibili Gaming finished second, while LYON surprisingly secured third place and G2 Esports finished fourth.

Nine of the previous 10 MSI champions failed to follow their victory by winning Worlds, but the tournament's record of identifying teams capable of deep Worlds runs remains considerably stronger.

With almost half of all MSI top-four finishers since 2015 subsequently reaching the Worlds semifinals, HLE, BLG, LYON, and G2 enter the season's biggest tournament with history suggesting at least one could remain in contention deep into Worlds.