Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many eSports events have gotten cancelled. League of Legends is no exception, as the eSports team decided to cancel the anticipated 2020 Mid-Season Invitational. Between the conclusion of Spring season and the upcoming Summer season, we are left bereft of competition for two months.

Fret not, for Riot Korea recently announced their own mid-season event to fill the void of competition while we slowly transition to the Summer tournaments.

How did this come to be? Who’s going to battle who? We’ve got some of the details.

Last May 2, Joe Marsh, the current CEU for the renowned LCK team T1 (formerly SKT T1) posted a tweet casually proposing for a special event between the LPL and LCK.

On May 4, The LPL English team replied to Joe Marsh with this tweet:

All of these sound sudden, but we may be having an exhibition match featuring two extremely stacked leagues from the East. Imagine how much hype these teams could generate once they meet.

Later, Riot Korea approved Joe Marsh’s ideas, and Lolesports recently wrote this article to officially declare the 2020 Mid-Season Cup. An excerpt from the piece:

“In this star-studded showcase of League of Legends talent, the best teams from each league’s 2020 Spring Splits will face off in a series of epic matches to see which team is truly the greatest!”

These are the teams who will duke it out starting May 28, 2020:

LCK Teams:

  • T1 (LCK 2020 Spring Split Champions)
  • Gen.G
  • DragonX
  • DAMWON Gaming

LPL Teams:

  • JD Gaming (LPL 2020 Spring Split Champions)
  • Top Esports
  • FunPlus Phoenix
  • Invictus Gaming

The games will be conducted through online play, and teams will be competing in their local stadiums. The LPL teams will play at the Shanghai LPL arena, while the LCK teams will play at the LoL Park in Seoul, South Korea.

Riot has also stepped up their game to ensure competitive integrity despite online play by standardizing the latency to about 30 to 40 m/s, which is not perfect but should have minute differences. This can have implications on future tournaments as eSports shifts to the online platform.

T1 CEO Joe Marsh was exceptional for dropping this idea on the community, especially those who had planned to watch the 2020 Mid-season Invitational. We may not have the other regions, but there’s something to fill that ache in our hearts.

As demonstrated in the spring season, these teams have been at the top of their leagues. We’ve seen how much upsets the 2020 LPL Spring playoffs had brought, and the sudden rise of LCK teams who barely made it to quarterfinals during Worlds 2019 were just as shocking as well. It should also be noted that most of League’s Esports history had champions coming from these two regions as well, with LPL being the new superstars.

If these two teams are to have a showdown in two weeks time, it will merely be a taste of what kind of quality dish will be served in the upcoming Worlds 2020.

Who are your best bets? Are there any lane matchups you want to watch? Who is the superior region?

Follow us for future updates and eventual coverage of this special event!