League of Legends MSI 2024 Power Rankings

Isn’t it amazing how League of Legends managed to stay at the top of worldwide esports scene for nearly a decade and a half by now? Not only does the game still easily beat out the majority of its competitors, it also shows no signs of slowing down at all with more international bangers. The upcoming Mid-Season Invitational will be the ninth installment of this annual summer series. If the regular season is an indicator, this MSI will be extremely exciting and competitive (it seems that every MSI is more competitive than the last). Since it’s such a great time for watching pro LoL games - and betting on them, too - let’s proceed with the top teams of every region.

Bilibili Gaming

The good old tradition of MSI being dominated by the LPL teams is seemingly going to be continued with by the BLG super roster. While BLG has been one of the most dominant teams of the Chinese region for quite awhile - after all, the top-3 Worlds finish, as well as finishing as top-2 in LPL Spring and gold in Summer 2023 is nothing to scoff at - the team is yet to claim an international title to their name. What changed in 2024, you might ask? Simple answer - BLG managed to sign Zhuo "knight" Ding, a legendary midlaner who’s regarded by some fans as “China’s Chovy”.

With this fantastic pickup, BLG was finally able to plow through the regular season of LPL Spring 2024 with a score of 15-1 (only dropping a series to Invictus Gaming), and, even more importantly, BLG finally overpowered their old-time rival, Top Esports. Twice in a row, even! With the past 3 MSIs going China’s way, BLG looks like a strong contender to continue this streak. Even more than that - BLG now has an opportunity to win their first international title without leaving their home country - after all, the Mid-Season Invitational 2024 will take place in Chengdu, China! Follow this year’s MSI closer at TIPS.GG - schedules, matches, and teams all a click away.

GEN.G

GEN.G’s performance in LCK has been incredible - winning past 4 LCK playoffs is no easy feat, especially when it takes beating the legendary T1 in the Final every time. That’s why some of us wanted to put GEN.G at the top spot. However, the team’s history of looking incredible in domestic cups while underperforming internationally prevented us from making this choice. This season, however, feels different - the Korean GEN.G has assembled a true superteam with the return of the “crazy cook” Son "Lehends" Si-woo and the new arrival of the best jungler of LCK Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu.

GEN.G is looking strong: they’ve finished the LCK Spring with a 17-1 score (a personal record for the roster). GEN.G seems to have figured out the current meta faster than other teams - the famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon looks especially scary at the FOTM pick Aurelion Sol. However, it might be too early to draw conclusions about the MSI-deciding picks - the recent pro-play balance patch promises to shake things up a LOT. It will be a real test to see if GEN.G can adapt.

T1 Esports

It’s been a turbulent season start for T1 Esports, the current reigning champs. They’re one of the few teams that managed to stay intact coming into the 2024 season - after all, why fix what’s not broken, especially since the definition of “not broken” is quite literally winning four World Championships titles. However, the usually dominant T1 had a relatively (keyword “relatively” - since it’s still a confident second place in one of the greatest competitive regions) poor showing in LCK, dropping games to weaker teams. Although it would be unfair to leave it at that - we did, after all, see a lot of life from T1 in the LCK Spring 2024 finals. They briefly had GEN.G, their old nemesis, on the ropes before near getting reverse swept 3:2

The organization has seemingly been fighting an uphill battle for the past years. From Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok’s hand injury from last year that left the team scrambling for options to even the recent series of DDoS attacks against T1 players and even the return of the infamous “T1 truck,” the team has been dealing with one problem after another. And what’s even more frustrating is that most of these are not even something you can fix by practicing on the rift! There’s still hope left for T1 fans, though: the team has an impressive record against LPL teams (or, as some would say, they are “LPL’s father”). Even the GEN.G matchup that looked hopeless in the past seems doable now!

Top Esports

For the past two years, Top Esports has been riding at the coattails of the LPL Playoff Finals. Even the huge roster swap where TES acquired the famous Bai "369" Jia-Hao, Tian "Meiko" Ye, and Lin "Creme" Jian wasn’t quite enough to give them enough edge to make it to top-1. However, it would be a disservice just to say, “they lost the playoffs.” Every match of theirs against BLG was a close one - especially the back-and-forth Winner’s Bracket Final.

TES is looking like they’re the only team that can match BLG in LPL 2024. Our only regret is that the MSI patch will have bruisers nerfed - it would be a hell of a watch spectating 369 pull out the carry toplane performances he’s known for on the international stage. Just to prove a point - that guy is the only one to even consider picking Urgot (with a 66% winrate) in the entire premier-tier proplay!

G2 Esports

This European lineup has been the dominant force in the LEC for a while. G2 has its fair share of good international showings, but we’re not expecting them to power up their 2019 version (although most EU fans are still on that hopium). Realistically speaking, though, G2 has once again proven their regional superiority by beating the rivals, Fnatic, 3:1 in the Playoff Finals. That’s 4 Playoffs in a row and 10 in total.

G2 is also one of the lucky teams to survive the 2023 off-season shuffle without any changes. The laner core of Rasmus "Caps" Borregaard, Steven "Hans Sama" Liv, and Sergen "BrokenBlade" Çelik (mid, AD Carry, and top, respectively) are widely appreciated as the best of the in the region in their roles. As evidenced by the LEC Playoffs, the meta seems to favor G2, too, with Hans Sama’s Jinx wreaking havoc against Fnatic.

Team Liquid

With TL Jeong "Impact" Eon-young winning the LCS Spring playoffs, he’s now officially the best toplaner in NA with 6 (!) domestic trophies. Seems that SKT training paid off! In other news, NA fans are finally done hating Eain "APA" Stearns, the team’s starting midlaner, which is obviously great news for this roster heading into MSI.

The team’s core of Jeong "Impact" Eon-young, Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in - who are the best of the region on top and support - has been strengthened with the arrival of Eom "UmTi" Seong-hyeon - the legendary player who survived in both Jin Air and OK BRION, the LCK teams with the greatest fanbases to ever exist. The glow up for UmTI is immediate - from finishing 6th domestically to qualifying to MSI on his first split.

Fnatic

Europe’s legends have fallen on some hard times as of late. Well, relatively speaking, of course - consecutive silvers in LEC Playoffs 2023-2024 is an impressive result, but, of course, fans of the only European organization to ever win the League of Legends World Championship won’t be satisfied with this.

Fnatic’s strategy for late 2023 and early 2024 has been acquiring a new botlane with Oh "Noah" Hyeon-taek and Yoon "Jun" Se-jun - and it was an improvement, to be sure. Jun, in particular, has been instrumental in acquiring the Gold in the Spring Regular season - and a force to be reckoned with in the G2 series (which could’ve been a full best-of-5).

PSG Talon

This Taiwanese team has been representing their region on the international stage since forever, which means they get more practice against the GOATs, which means they obviously get stronger. The team has acquired an LPL veteran ADC, Lu "Betty" Yu-Hung - an addition that made them an even more dominant force in their region and an actual contender against non-LCK and LPL regions.

Overall, we’re expecting a semi-repeat of the 2021 MSI for PSG Talon. The premier-region veteran core (and old teammates) Huang "Maple" Yi-Tang and Lu "Betty" Yu-Hung made short work of their competition in the PCS so convincingly that NA and EU fans should be careful around PSG fans!

FlyQuest

NA’s FlyQuest entered 2024 with a full roster make-over. The team’s core is strong, featuring such famous names as Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau, Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen, and Kacper "Inspired" Słoma, as well as rookies Fahad "Massu" Abdulmalek and Alan "Busio" Cwalina. This change came with a heavy price, however - the loss of the LCK imports Lee "Prince" Chae-hwan on ADC and Lee "VicLa" Dae-kwang on mid neutered the team somewhat. Not to mention the previously mentioned Impact shuffling out to TL.

FlyQuest did start off strong as the first seed in the regular season, but their energy eventually was snuffed out as the playoffs came. This was especially noticeable in the two lanes we’ve mentioned. If the current meta is any indication of what’s MSI is going to be decided at, having weaker top and bot lanes is bad news for FlyQuest.

GAM Esports

GAM Esports has been the Vietnamese VCS region dominant team since 2019. With another VCS cup under their belt after defeating Vikings Esports, GAM Esports might surprise us again internationally - just like they did last year.

It was very tempting to put GAM Esports higher than this due to their record against LPL teams internationally, but we decided to be more reserved. The team kept a very strong core of Trần "Kiaya" Duy Sang and Đỗ "Levi" Duy Khánh coming into 2024, but the rest of the team had to be swapped out due to a match-fixing scandal affecting the previous midlaner and ADC. Ironically, we can’t even tell if it’s good or bad for the team.

LOUD

Brazil’s CBLOL recently made history by surpassing the North American LCS in viewership during the Spring 2024 Playoffs. But the teams’ power levels are sadly not measured in the amount of fans they have, so Brazil’s Wild Card region isn’t stronger than NA - at least not yet. Of course, these guys have a history of massive upsets against premier regions (looking at you, KabuM), but if it’s an upset, it means they were weaker in the first place.

LOUD is a dominant force in their home region, entering the 2024 Spring without changing their roster. They defeated their old rival, paiN Gaming, in the CBLOL Final once more - and became the last team to qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational 2024.

Estral Esports

2024 MSI marks the first international event for Estral Esports - and it’s quite an introduction. While the team has 10 golds in LAT regional events, an international stage is completely different. Thankfully, the roster entered 2024 without any changes, so no relearning of the ropes needed.

The North American fans will be happy to see Brandon Joel "Josedeodo" Villegas on a big stage again! But, let’s be real, though - for Estral Esports, winning even one game will be a huge accomplishment.