MSI 2023 playoffs preview

Mid-Season Invitational 2023 is about to enter the playoffs stage. Just eight of the initial 13 teams will take part in it and the matches look very exciting.

The drama is greatly increased by the fact that the seeding has generated several tough matches. And even if the quarterfinals of the upper bracket will be won by the favorites, the semifinals are guaranteed to be spectacular.

The seeding and matches we might get to see

The top two teams in South Korea, Gen.G Esports and T1, will face tough opponents in their first match and then, if everything goes well, will face each other again for an epic rematch.

In the bottom part of the upper bracket, there are two Chinese teams that have the chance to win their first match and then face each other in the semifinals. But we could also see a rematch between Cloud9 and Golden Guardians.

The two North American teams played in the Grand Final of LCS Spring. C9 won that match (3-1) and is likely to win the quarterfinal against Bilibili Gaming at MSI 2023.

If Golden Guardians could miraculously defeat the strongest team in China, JD Gaming, the semifinal would be hyped and the lower bracket would be hell for anyone that ends up playing there after the quarterfinals.

Based on everything we know, there’s a high chance that both Chinese teams and both South Korean teams will advance to the upper bracket semifinals. But we’ll have to wait and see. The match format for this second stage is best-of-five, which gives the teams a lot of great opportunities to prove themselves.

In a best-of-one, anything can happen. But in a best-of-five, the teams have a lot more time to study each other and adapt.

Unfortunately for the European teams, they will need to compete against opponents that could have easily played against each other at Worlds. So their odds of success are very slim. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has just celebrated his 10-year anniversary with T1, so he’s probably eager to compete in front of a passionate crowd and show his skills.

In LCK Spring 2023, his team had a near-perfect group stage (17 W – 1 L) but then lost the Grand Final against the runner-up. Something similar happened in the Grand Final of Worlds 2022. Everyone expected Faker’s team to win but they still lost despite facing a much weaker opponent. But against a European team, he’s not likely to fail that easily.

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