The Mid-Season Invitational is a little more than a month away. Due to the restrictions that came from the COVID-19 pandemic around the world in 2020, the event was forced to cancel to ensure the safety of the players. As teams enter the playoffs in their respective regions, we at Inven Global, thought it would be fun to predict which team will make it to the first major international tournament of the year in LoL Esports.

LCK - DWG KIA (@LoLQuestKR) 

The 2020 World champions continue on their dominance from last Summer. DWG KIA ended the regular split in 1st place with a 16-2 record. Standings wise, Gen.G ended in 2nd place with a 13-5 record; there’s a huge gap in between DWG KIA and the rest of the playoffs teams.

Khan has looked so dominant on all the champions he played, and has been the forerunner of the top lane meta in the LCK, with his picks such as Sion. Canyon has been incredibly innovative, and when paired up with ShowMaker, the duo has enabled so much for each other. Ghost-BeryL have continued to be the immovable objects that their team needs, and when paired up with kkOma, arguably the best coach in League of Legends history, this team has looked unstoppable. I’m very curious to see how this team will face off against G2/Rogue. Not NA though; as LS put it in a recent interview, “NA right now... is a wildcard region”, and it’s a statement that I wholeheartedly agree with.

LPL - TOP Esports (@OddballCreator)

LPL has been a wild ride this year. There’s a razor-thin margin of skill difference between most of the teams going into playoffs. Viper and Meiko have been performing out of their minds on EDward Gaming. Royal Never Give Up has been a steady and consistent rock throughout the tournament. If they can continue their momentum, though, I'd have to go with Top Esports.

They came into the tournament receiving a good amount of hype from fans, but weren't able to reach anywhere near the top of the standings. In these last few weeks though, they've slowly progressed, climbing near the top of the ranks with a dangerous upward trend going into playoffs. The one-two punch of JackeyLove and knight has proven very threatening, and just might be what brings Top Esports to the Mid Season Invitational.

LCS - Cloud9 (@NickGeracie)

Over in North America, the 2021 League of Legends Championship Series Mid-Season Showdown has taken the place of the Spring Playoffs to decide which team will represent NA at the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational. With the first round of best-of-five series days away, it’s hard to call any team aside from Cloud9 the favorite of the event.

C9 didn’t just finish 1st in the 2021 LCS Spring Split, the team spent the last third of its split experimenting with different compositions. “We wanted to see what we could try and pull off, and I think that's been going pretty well for us,” Perkz explained in an interview with Inven Global following the conclusion of the Spring Split. “Even though we lost both games, we learned a lot more in those two games than in our previous two wins. In a loss, your team learns more as a unit, so yeah, it was good for us.”

Perkz has already shown plenty of individual flexibility in terms of his champion pool, but he believes the team’s priority on becoming more comfortable with more than one style of play is what will make the difference in the post-season. “I think TSM and Team Liquid are strong opponents, but I believe that they are only good at a few champions and styles, unfortunately,” Perkz said. 

Both TL and TSM bested Cloud9 in their last respective matches, but TSM won by a razor thin margin and Team Liquid has struggled to find consistency in recent weeks despite very high peaks in performance. Between a 1st place finish in the 2021 LCS Spring Split and a higher level of commitment to diversification of styles, Cloud9 is the clear favorite to win the LCS Mid-Season Showdown.

LEC - G2 Esports (@OddballCreator)

Business as usual. Honestly if G2 were ranked sixth in the LEC, I would still choose them to win. Their ability to dial-it-to-eleven for playoffs should never be underestimated, as they've proven time and time again. But they're not ranked sixth—they're first. Rekkles has fit into the lineup like a spiked glove—ending the split with an insane 12.6 KDA. The rest of the lineup has performed to their usual great standards. When will their reign end?