MSI 2024 Breaks File for Most Concurrent Views in 7 Years

The Mid-Season Invitationals match hit its stride this 12 months, and the info suggests an upward pattern.

League of Legends esports match MSI 2024 reached its finish this weekend. All through the practically three-week-long derby, we noticed large performs and ugly losses. However amidst the ups and downs, Riot’s diehard group amounted to the best concurrent viewer depend for MSI since its 2017 begin.

MSI 2024 concluded with the explosive Grand Ultimate between LCK powerhouse Gen.G and Chinese language reps Bilibili Gaming. The perfect-of-five denied all expectations because the Korean seed broke China’s win streak; a well-earned victory given GEN’s utter dominance in home tournaments.

On this article, we’re taking a look at how MSI 2024’s fruits — and the whole lot that led as much as it — gave us the largest mid-year celebration in League of Legends historical past.

MSI 2024 Breaks File for Most Concurrent Views

A New Hope

For the primary time in LoL esports historical past, the winner of MSI this 12 months could be assured a spot at Worlds, Riot’s largest championship of the 12 months.

The adjustments had been introduced early this 12 months, priming the LPL, LCK, LCS, PCS and CBLOL, LLA, VCS and LEC for a banger mid-season invitational. Whereas the outcomes had been anticipated, the views mirrored the hype MSI 2024 garnered.

In a submit, Esports Charts listed peak viewership for the previous seven invitationals. And the numbers present that MSI 2024 did one thing proper.

MSI 2024 had 500,000 extra views than final 12 months’s and greater than twice the height viewers of the inaugural Invitational, making it the preferred MSI ever.

It is value noting that this solely accounted for eyeballs that had been on streaming websites like Twitch and YouTube, which signifies that the precise quantity (should you account for Chinese language streaming websites) might be increased than what we’ve got.

Struggling Legends

The beginning of MSI 2024 was extraordinarily controversial.

For starters, it was the primary time in latest reminiscence that we noticed T1 — Korea’s poster youngster for LoL esports excellence — in Stage A Play-ins, a class reserved for groups punching as much as the season’s most dominant groups.

As anticipated, T1 completed sturdy to carry out within the higher brackets. They hit the bottom operating in opposition to groups like G2 Esports and Workforce Liquid. However a fateful Silver Scrapes in opposition to semifinalist BLG eradicated the LCK legends from MSI 2024.

This felt paying homage to Fnatic’s sudden fall of their home court docket again in Winter 2023. The once-legendary EU org floundered within the early phases, and could not get into Teams for the primary time in Fnatic’s historical past.

Humanoid and co. have risen to raised heights since then, pinching a runner-up spot within the Season Finals, getting a number of deep runs in 2024, and finally displaying up at MSI 2024.

Whether or not you had been a T1 fan or not, you could not take your eyes off the display screen, particularly whenever you noticed Faker making errors.

The once-untouchable reigning champs dedicated some avoidable blunders of their MSI run; errors which star participant Lee “Faker” Sang-Hyeok blamed on a scarcity of correct follow because of steady DDoS assaults in opposition to T1. Whereas T1 finally picked themselves again up, it was uncommon to observe gods bleed.

Hungry Underdogs 

Regardless of their losses, these “David vs. Goliath” match-ups nonetheless had hyped moments that just about upset all the bracket!

Fnatic vs High Esports (Play-Ins Stage)

The primary stage of MSI 2024 pitted Fnatic’s boys in opposition to China’s 2nd seed, and regardless of the ability hole, Humanoid’s squad nonetheless took the fights wherever they may, selecting the higher fights till they reached a sequence level.

High Esports vs Gen.G (Bracket Stage)

Early in the principle stage, LPL #2 seed High Esports went up in opposition to Korean titans Gen.G, a workforce identified for being T1’s Waterloo in home tournaments. That mentioned, not solely did they discover some large wins, however they brawled for the total best-of-five sequence in essentially the most sudden Silver Scrapes of all the championship.

G2 Esports vs T1 (Bracket Stage)

We virtually noticed the largest upset in 5 years when Caps and co. went toe-to-toe in opposition to the Unkillable Demon King’s squad.

G2 Esports seemed the strongest they’ve ever been, evoking 2019 reminiscences of EU supremacy. And all of it seemed like it might go their manner till the fifth and last Silver Scrapes match, when Zeus and Faker devastated the Rift with their impenetrable armor for a T1 win.

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