After weeks of developing the mid-season event promised by Riot Korea, we now have official tournament formats and brackets released just yesterday.

The hype only grows stronger from this point on, as some matchups will be interesting to watch, as well as a unique addition in the tournament format. The vibes coming out of this feels like an actual Mid-Season event, just as advertised. Read on below to learn more!

2020 Mid-Season Cup Format

The 2020 Mid-Season Cup is one of the many international events held under the collective Mid-Season Streamathon as a global effort to raise funds for COVID-19 relief. The Korean and Chinese region will partake in the cup, where the top 4 of the two regions will duke it out in a battle royale variant of the Rift Rivals.

The entire tournament will run from the 28th of May 2020 until the 31st.

Based on the details released by eSports translator Kevin Kim, the official tournament format is as follows:

  • General: Ping is artificially standardized to ensure competitive integrity
  • Group Stage
  • Two groups with four teams each
  • Single Round Robin
  • All matches are best of one
  • The top 2 from each group advance to the Knockout Stage
  • Knockout Stage
  • Single Elimination
  • All matches are best of five
  • The first game of each series is played in blind pick, while the remaining games are played in draft pick

Participants and the Cup Bracket

Indeed, the speculations were true: The top four teams of the LCK and LPL will duke it out, and the group distribution is actually interesting and well-balanced!

Group A:

  • T1 (LCK #1)
  • Top Esports (LPL #2)
  • FunPlus Phoenix (LPL #3)
  • DAMWON Gaming (LCK #4)

Group B:

  • JD Gaming (LPL #1)
  • Gen.G (LCK #2)
  • DragonX (LCK #3)
  • Invictus Gaming (LPL #4+
Who else is hyped?

Tournament Schedule

Day 1 will feature Group A’s teams on May 28, starting at 4pm Korean Standard Time:

  1. T1 vs FPX
  2. DWG vs TES
  3. T1 vs DWG
  4. TES vs FPX
  5. DWG vs FPX
  6. T1 vs TES

Day 2 will feature Group A’s teams on May 29, starting at 4pm Korean Standard Time:

  1. GEN vs JDG
  2. DRX vs iG
  3. GEN vs DRX
  4. JDG vs iG
  5. GEN vs iG
  6. DRX vs JDG

The Semifinals and Finals will be conducted on the 30th and 31st of May, respectively. Who knows who’s going to play on those days?

Personal Predictions

This is a hard one to predict, because these teams are so stacked and have so much history. You cannot truly cross out the bottom rankers in this situation because they are able to stay close with the leading teams.

For Group A, I’m predicting a close fight between T1 and Top Esports. If we’re talking about people to single out, T1 always has Faker in the mid lane, while TES has JackeyLove in the AD carry position. These two are massive powerhouses, and will have all eyes on them this entire day.

For Group B, JD Gaming may be the LPL Spring Split champion, but they’re not invincible. I sense a good amount of threat from the Korean teams. Invictus Gaming has not adapted their roster since the disappointing loss in the Spring Split, so they may only win if they can get their tempo back.

I’m personally hoping for Top Esports to take this overall win due to their outstanding performance and how they managed to stretch their final series against JD Gaming to Game 5. Upsets are likely this season, so don’t take my word for it.

Will LPL or LCK take home the trophy? Whose matchups are you hyped for? Let us know in the comments!