The Mid-Season Cup replaces the Mid-Season Invitational in 2020 and features eight of the top teams in Asia competing for the lion-share of $600,000. The online competition will feature three World Championship title holders: T1, FunPlus Phoenix and Invictus Gaming.
What is the Mid-Season Cup?
The Mid-Season Cup (MSC 2020) is an online competition that features a $600,000 prize pool. There are eight teams in total competing in the MSC representing the top four seeds from the LCK and LPL.
The Mid-Season Cup replaces the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) in 2020 due to the circumstances surrounding COVID-19. The MSC will take place over four days with each team playing online from LoL Park in Seoul and the LPL Arena in Shanghai.
To ensure the competitive integrity of the tournament, Riot Games will be using a system of tools and programs to create an online environment that standardizes the ping to 30ms - 40 ms for the teams competing.
Mid-Season Cup - Outright winner
The odds below represent the Outright winner of the Mid-Season Cup.
Mid-Season Cup odds
Mid-Season Cup format
The group stage of the Mid-Season Cup will be played in a Best-of-One (Bo1), Single-round robin with the top two teams from each group advancing to the semifinals.
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)
Following the conclusion of the group stage, the Semifinals and Finals will be played in a Best-of-Five (Bo5) series with the 1st game in the series played as a Blind Pick with the subsequent games played as a Draft Pick.
Who will win the Mid-Season Cup?
The MSC promises to be one of the most competitive tournaments in recent LoL history with the potential for three World Championship title holders: T1, FunPlus Phoenix and Invictus Gaming to clash on Summoners Rift.
Of the eight teams in contention at MSC 2020, T1 are the favourites to win the tournament outright based on their Spring split form.
The Faker led team went 14-4 in the regular season and 6-1 in the Playoffs to be crowned the LCK 2020 Spring Champions. Based on their match record, one would expect in-game statistics that support their claim to the title but in-fact throughout the regular season T1 only averaged a +342 Gold Difference at 15 minutes (GD@15) against their opponents which indicates that the team is more reliant on team fighting rather than individual performances.
The number one seed representative from the LPL, JD Gaming, will surprise fans given the region is home to current and former World Champions FunPlus Phoenix and Invictus Gaming. JD Gaming and second seed TOP Esports dethroned the champions in the LPL 2020 Spring Playoffs Semifinals with TES defeating IG 3 - 1 and JDG sweeping FPX 3 - 0.
Based on analyst projections, T1 and TES will be expected to top Group A to earn a Semifinals berth while JDG and Gen.G could represent the top two in Group B.
How to bet on the Mid-Season Cup
Pinnacle offers a number of ways to bet on the Mid-Season Cup. Prior to the start of the tournament, bettors will be able to select the Outright winner, while during match days the Moneyline, Over/Under Total Maps, as well as live betting will be made available to bettors to get involved in the action.
For those that want to further inform their prediction, the esports blog has a beginner’s guide to betting on LoL as well as a detailed guide on how to improve your LoL prediction.
*Odds are subject to change.
